LIBRAEY VRINCJST.ON, N. J. Division No. Case, ectuon', No. Shelf, ^ ec T No. Book, Jfe 6£ he John M. Krehs Donation, ■■{ KAINA KAI n A A A I A.' SACRED CONTEMPLATIONS: IN THREE PARTS. I. A VIEW of the COVENANT of WORKS; in its natu- &al state, as common to all Mankind, — and in its positive state, as peculiar to our Firfl Parents: Difcovering the SINGULAR. GOODNESS of GoD, ill that POSITIVE STATE. II. A VIEW of the COVENANT of GRACE; in the esta- blishment of it from Eternity, the accomplishment of it in Time, and the effect of it through Eternity. III. A VIEW of the absolute and immediate DEPEN- DENCE of all things on GOD : In a Difcourfe concern- ing Liberty and Necessity. to which is added, An APPENDIX, Containing Explications of fome Difficulties in the Worki By ADAM GIB, Minister of the Gospel ; Edinburgh. Every Scribe which is injlrucled unto the kingdom of heaven, is like unto a man that is an boufeho/der, nuhich hringeth forth out of his treafure [kain a kai Iiaaaia] things new and old. Mat. xiii. 52. Knowledge Jhall be increafed. Dan. xii. 4. PHILADELPHIA: Printed by W. Y O U N G and J. M'C ULLOC H. M.DCCLXXX.VIII, ^^^^^^^w^w& PREFACE. DURING the long courfe of my miniflry, in a numerous Congregation at Edin- burgh,- — under a variety of perfonal trials, and amidft grievous breakings among thofe of the fame denomination; I have obtained mercy to perfevere in the fame ftate of reli- gious principles and profeflion upon which, having been unanimoufly called, I was fo- lemnly ordained to that miniflry, on the fe- cond day of April 1741. I have ufed my beft endeavours all along, through evil report and good report \ to main- tain the caufe of the Seceffion-teftimony which I profefs; on behalf of the Reformation-prin- ciples of the Church of Scotland % againft the manifold errors and corruptions of the pre- fent age. But I have very feldom entertained my hear- ers from the pulpit, with any peculiarities of that caufe. It has been always my principal, and almoft only bufinefs there,— to explain and enforce thofe dodlrines and duties which are accounted of among Chriftians of all de- nominations ; fo far as they take the fub- ftance of their Chriftianity from the Bible. The iv PREFACE. The prefent Work is of the fame general nature \ as it meddles with nothing peculiar to any of thofe denominations. And 1 have a particular fatisfadtion in this providential ordering ; that my former appearances be- fore the world, in favour of the fpecial Tefti- mony which I have efpoufed, — are fucceeded by the prefent appearance, on behalf of the common interefts of Chriftianity. I have endeavoured to write, as with per- fpicuity, fo with plainnefs and limplicity ; without affe&ing any modifh ornaments of ftyle, — which might not well fuit the gravity of the fubjedt, nor the apprehenfion of com- mon readers. Belide that fome repetitions of the fame fentiments were very incident, — when writ- ing at diftances of time, in the intervals of other bunnefs; it is prefumed that none of thefe will be reckoned vain repetitions: As they are made with new applications and il- luftrations ; or natively occurred for complet- ing the fenfe, in different parts of the fub- jecl. I make no account of reflections (fuch as I have met with) about my way of pointing, from its being uncommon. My concern is, that it may be what I reckon juft and accurate; properly diftinguifhing the co-ordinate and fubordinate parts of matter in fentences: Of fome refemblance, as our language can ad- mit, to the divine accuracy of punctuation (by what are called accents} in the Hebrew Bible. I have PREFACE. v I have introduced two or three material corrections (not orginally mine; upon our tranflation of the holy Bible. But this is very different from the practice of fome moderns, who have done defpite to the great Prophet of the Church, — on the matter charging him with falmood and impofture [Matth. v. 18.]; while impioufly prefuming to amend and in- novate the received reading of the Hebrew Scriptures. And here I will fet up an Ebenezer, — a monument of thankfulnefs, that hitherto hath the Lord helped me; preferring me in a capa- city of body and mind, for accompliihing this Work in my feventy-third year: Which I will leave behind me as a fummary (efpecially in the fecond part) of that Gofpel which I have been preaching; and as a teftimony for truth, againft the prefent flood of errors, — in bppofition likewife to many mifapprehen- fions which generally prevail: Defirous and hopeful that I may be ufeful by it, after hav- ing finifhed my courfe. But, in a particular manner, I mean a fpeaking thereby to thofe now under my charge; when they fhall no longer hear any thing from the mouth of Their fervant for Jesus' fake, Edinburgh, 7 ADAM GIB. Aug. 18. 1786. j [It may be here added by a friend of the Author, that he died the 1 8th June 1788 j bein^ carried off by the gout in his Ho- rn ach.] c o N- M^^^^^M^MMMMMMMI^ CONTENT S. PART FIRST. Page A View of the Covenant of Works, 17 Chap. I. A general Fieio of the Covenant of Works, in Genejis ii. i6, 17, - - - 18 Ssct. I. A Divifiot, and Explication of thefe words, ib. II. General Remarks for a further opening of the fubjeft, ' - - 24 III. Of the Rejlritlion laid upon the firfl man, 30 IV. Of the Penalty under which the reftri&ion was laid upon the firft man, 38 V. Some Inferences from the aforegoing general \kw, - - - - - 48 Chap. II. Of God's Covenant- dealing with the firfl man as a public Perfon, - - 60 Sect. I. Of the Reality of God's Covenant-dealing with the firii man as a public perfon, ib. II. Of the Nature of God's Covenant-dealing with the firft man as a public perfon, 8 1 III. Of the Propriety of God's Covenant-deal- ing with the firft man as a public perfon, 93 Chap. III. Of the Covenant of Works in its natural State, - - - 96 IV. Of the Covenant of Works in its pofitive State, - - - 102 V. Of the Breach of the Covenant of Works, 107 VE. Of our natural Subjection to the Covenant of Works, - - - - 116 VII. Of our natural Eflate under the Covenant ef Works, - - - - 121 PART CONTENTS, vii Page PART SECOND. A View of the Covenant of Grace, 133 PERIOD I. Of the Eftablijhment of the Covenant of Grace from eternity, - - - - 134, Sect, I. Of the Reality of the Covenant of Grace, ib. II. General Observations about the Covenant of Grace, - - - 139 III. Of the Origin of the Covenant of Grace, 148 IV. Of the glorious Parties concerned in the eftablifhment of the Covenant of Grace, 153 V. Of the Maker of the Covenant of Grace, 156 VI. Of the Undertaker in the Covenant of Grace, 159 Head I. Of the Eternal Sonjhip of Jefus Chrift, - - - ib. II. Of the Mediatory State of Jefus Chrift, - - ' l 15 VII. Of the Objeas of the Covenant of Grace, 180 VIII. Of the Condition of the Covenant of Grace, - - - - 183 IX. Of the Promifes of the Covenant of Grace, 586 X. Of the End of the Covenant of Grace, 191 PERIOD II. Of the Accomplijhnient of the Covenant of Grace in time, 193 Head I. Of the Mediatory accomplifhment of the Cove- nant of Grace, - - - - ~ l 95 Sect. I. Of the accomplifhment of the Covenant of Grace by Chrift as a Prieft, - - 196 Art. I. Of the Incarnation of Jefus Chrift, 198 II. Of the Service of Jefus Chrift, 201 III. Of the Sufferings of Jefus Chrift, 206 IV. Of the Entrance of Jefus Chrift into his Glory, - - - 214 V. Of the InterceJJion of Jefus Chrift, 219 Sect. II. Of the accomplifhment of the Covenant of Grace by Chrift as a Prophet, - - 228 III. Of the accomplifhment of the Covenant of Grace by Chrift as a King, - 234 Hi ad II. Of the Minifterial accomplifhment of the Co- venant of Grace, - 249 Sect. I. Of the ordinance of Preachings as It refpe£U the members of the Vijiblc Church, - 2^ . Sect- viii CONTENTS. Page Sect. II. Of the ordinance of Preachings as it re- fpe&s the members of the Invijible Church, 265 PERIOD III. Of the Effecl of the Covenant of Grace through eternity, 270 Sect. I. Of the effe# with regard to Christ, 272 II.' Of the effect., with regard to Chriitians, 278 Conclusion, - - 294 PART THIRD. A Discourse of Liberty and Necessity, 301: Chap. I. Of the Infidel-Scheme of Liberty and Ncceffity, ih. Sect. I. The Infidel-fcheme explained, - ib. II. The in'iVi-foheme expo fed, - 308 Chap. II. Of the Chrijlian aad Rational fche'me of Li- berty and j^eceffity, - - 334 Sect. I. Of Liberty and Neceffity in the material World, - - - - 335 Art. I. Of Necelpty in the material wtorld, ib* II. Of Contingency or Chance in the material world, - - • - 33S Sect. II. Of Liberty and Neceffity in the moral World, 349 Art. I. Of the exercife of man's rafiovx' po.vers, ih. II . Of maa's Dpendence on Gjd a a a ration- al creature, - - * 357 III. Of roan's Dependence on God as a jinfu! creature, - - 3C9 IV Of moral Necej/ity, - - 366 V. Of moral Liberty y - - 367 Conclusion, - - jt General Recollection, ~ 375 An APPENDIX, containing Explications of Difficulties, which have been propofed to the Author on fome Paflfag.es of this Book, 377 I. About the Character of Jesus Christ as God-man, 379 II. About Matters of Futurity to men ( particularly as the death of Chrift was under the Old-Tedament dif- penfation), bein£ M dters of Fail to God, - 38c* III. About the Perfection of the redeemed, in the ftate eternal glory, - - - - 3^ 2 f f$ote\ The Appendix was fent in manufeript, to the printers, after the Author heard that an American edition was propofed to be publifhed.l SACRED SACRED CONTEMPLATIONS: PART FIRST. A VIEW of the COVENANT of WORKS: IN ITS NATURAL STATE, AS COMMON TO ALL MANKIND; AND IN ITS POSITIVE STATE, AS PECULIAR TO OUR FIRST PARENTS; DISCOVERING THE SINGULAR GOODNESS OF GOD, IN THAT POSITIVE STATE. Search the Scriptures, John v. 39, Qui Veritatetn occult at reus est, qui prodejffc non vult, augustinus, [In English.] He who conceals the Truth is criminal, becaufe he declines to be profitable. b V- ? - £» ADVERTISEMENT. A conversation which the Author lately hap- pened to have with a friend, upon fome things rela- tive to the fubjeft of the following View, — occa- fion the defign of drawing up his Contemplations upon it in the prefent form: From whence he was led forward to the other parts of this Work. His prefent judgment on that fubje#, fo far as flngular, was generally formed above forty years ago ; when he knew of none having gone before him in the fame way: Nor has he met with any iince. Several indigefted and untenable notions, as he apprehends, in the do&rine of fome eminent wri- ters on the Covenant of Works, — are here obviated; but not in a controverfial manner, and without ta- king any direct, notice of them. As to what new things are taught in this per- formance, — he is in no difficulty about fubmittiftg them to the moll: critical, if candid examination: Being fully confident that they are well founded in the holy Scriptures, and in the real nature of the fubjecl:. An explaining of what neceflarily belongs unto, and refults fr©m thefe grounds cf argument, is entirely different from a dealing in fanciful con- jectures ; and from a dipping into thofc fecret things which belong unto the Lord. The adverfaries of divine Revelation, in their perverfe difputings, may arraign the Scripture-doc- trine of the Covenant of Works, — as if it could not confift with the gbodnefs of God, or what they call the moral character of the Deity; that the firft man, and all his pofterity, mould have been expofed to the punimment of eternal death, — for an action fo plainly indifferent in its nature, and likewifc fo infignificant, infignificant, as an once eating a bit of wholeforae and pleafant fruit : As if z do&rine of fuch defpotic rigour and feverity, were quite unworthy of, yea reproachful to the infinite goodnefs of God. But it is conceived that an infallible antidote may be af- forded, againlt the poilbn of fuch deifticai reflec- tions ; by the prefent difplay of a moft fmgular good* nefs and condefcenjion, in God's making the eternal ftate of mankind to turn upon the hinge of the pofi- tive precept about the fruit of a certain tree : Much more favourable, than if it had been left to turn up- on the moral law, or the law of nature at large ; or even upon the moft important and erTenthd precept thereof,—- a tranfgrcflion of which would have been the moft fhocking wickednefs in its nature, that could have been propoied by Satan and perpetrated by man. And this publication cannot be but very feafon- able; when the fafhionable teachers are come the length of denying that there ever was a Covenant of Works, a covenant with the firft man as the head and repreientative of his pofterity ! SACRED VIEW OF THE COVENANT of WORKS, ®c. THE light of nature, in the common dictates of reafon, ferves to determine, — that this world could not have made itfelf : And that neither the matter nor form of it could have been from eterni- ty, in a fucceffion of revolutions and generations ; but muft have had a beginning. Yet our knowledge of the period and manner in which this beginning took place, is wholly derived from revelation; par- ticularly in the firfl chapter of Genefis. It is likewife evident to reafon, that God could not have made man fuch a corrupt creature as he is now. But the uprightnefs and fpecialky of his pri- mitive eftate, with the origin of moral evil in his fall, could not have been known by us, — otherwife than from the revelation which is made thereof, in the firft three chapters of Genefis. And this is the fub- jecl now propofed to fome particular examination. C H A P- 1 8 A View of the CHAPTER I. A general View of the Covenant of Works, as ex- hibited in Genesis ii. 16, 17. And the Lord God commanded the man, fifing ; Of every tree of the garden thou may eft freely eat. But of the tree of the knowledge rf rood aiid evil, thou Jhalt not eat of it : For in the day that thou eatejl thereof, thou Jhalt fur ely die, SECT. L A Divifion and Explication of thefe Words. The paffage now quoted contains the whole ad- count which Mofs hath given, of God's dealing with the firft man in a Covenant of Works ; a very fhort defcription of an eftablifhment which, in its original ftate, was of a very fhort duration. We have, in thefe words, a Right which God granted unto the firft man; and a Reftriclion under which he granted it, § I. A Right which God granted unto the firft man : And the Lord God commanded the man, fay- ing ; Of every tree of the garden thou may ejl freely eat. We may confider the Author, objeel, ejlablijhmcnt i and import of this grant. \ft, The Author of this. grant is the Lord God* Thefe are two awful names of the Supreme Being. The Lord, in the original Jehovah, is a name which belongs to him abfolutely and exclufively, as he is in himfelf; or as he is a Being eternal, necefiarily exiftent, felf-exiftent, independent, infinite in all perfections, Covenant of Works. 19 perfections, and infinitely blefTed in himfeif,— -the high Fountain of all finite being, which is neceffari- ly in a (late of univerfal and abfolute dependence upon him. God, in the original Elohim, is a name which belongs to him as an infinitely adorable Be- ing: The abfolute Proprietor and Sovereign of the world which he had newly created; and who had made a number of rational creatures for glorifying him in all the proper ways of adoration, of the high- eft worfhip and moft abfolute obedience. Elohim is the name by which he is mentioned in the firfl verfe of Gene/is; as the wonderful Creator of that world in which he was to be adored. There, and in the pafTage now confidered, it is a name conftrucled with verbs of the Jingular number, — created, commanded; denoting acts of One Being : And yet the name is of the plural number ; evidently referring to a plu- rality ( a Trinity) of perfons, moft myfterioufly fub- fifting in that One Being or Godhead. idly, The objecl of this grant was the Man s The man whom God had juft then made, as the laft part of his created work ; and the nobleft part thereof, in the vifible world. He was a very fingular part of that work: Compofed qf a material body; with an imma- terial, immortal, and reafonabie foul. He was not brought into being, as any of his natural pofterity were to be; but immediately by God himfeif: The Lord God formed man of the dufi of the ground* and breathed into his nojirils the breath of life ; and man became a living foul*. He was the jirft man, the na- tural root of all mankind: The great parent of the innumerable millions of the human race, who have overfpread the earth for near fix thoufand years by- paft, — and are yet to be produced upon it, till the reftitution of all things; the progenitor cf all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongue s\* He was made after * Gen. ii. 7. f Rer. vii. 9. 20 A View of the after God's own image; in knowledge, righteouf- nefs, and holinefs, — wft-h dominion over the other creatures in this lower world. He was thus a holy man. For (as is well ex- prefTed by a divine of the lad century*) " In the " flate of innocency, man was created right or up- " right, and very good ; endued with fuch flrength " and integrity in all parts, as did wholly difpofe " them to all operations conformable to God's will. " His underftandinsr, fo far as was needful before " his tranfiation, had a clear apprehenfion of the " Deity in his nature, attributes and worfhip; as ai- The eftabliftunent of this grant is in the word commanded. The original word, fo tranilated, doth not * Willbm Pcmble, in his V indicia Gracif, p. 4, 5. f Gen. i. 27. Covenant 0/ Works. 21 not merely fignify a fimple a£t of enjoining a duty : But it farther fignifies an expreflion of the divine will in appointing, ordaining, conflituting or efkablifh- ing a thing. Thus it is ufed to denote God's ap- pointing, ordaining, or conflituting of judges over Ifrael * ; and of David to be king in Ifrael f : As alfo to denote God's cfkabiifhing of his covenant of grace J. And the original language, in the palTage before us, naturally leads to this feme of the word here : For it literally fignifies, God commanded upon the man. Now, though it is proper to fay, that God command- ed the man, and that a command was thus laid upon the man; yet it is not proper language to fay, that God commanded upon the ?nan> — but that he conftitut- ed or ejlabiijhcd upon the man. The meaning, there- fore, is plainly this, — that God now made a confli- tution or ejiablijhment upon or concerning the man: An eflablifhment of a right which, under its cove- nant-reflriclion, was of the greatefl importance, to be of a (landing nature and effecl:, — with regard to the whole human kind. tfhly, As to the import of this right granted unto, and eftablimed upon the man ; we are informed about what, and for what it was. 1. About what it was : Every tree of the garden. God had put the man into the garden of Eden, or (as the word fignifies) of pleafure; a type of the heaven- ly paradife, — in which there is fulnefs of joy and pleafure for evermore. God had planted this garden, certainly in a moil delightful fituation; and, as we may well fuppofe, of an order and beauty far excel- ling all human plantations. And out of the ground, in that garden, made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleafant to the fight and good for food. And * 2 Sam. vii. u.; i Chron. xvii. 10. f I Sam. xlii. 14.*, 2 Sam. vi. 21. \ Pfal. cxi. 9. 22 A View of the And the trees were then loaded with their various and pleafant fruits, in a (late of ripenefs ; the be- ginning of the world's time, or of its firft year, ap- pearing to have been the autumn ,-^-the time of ripe fruits. ■2. For what it was : Saying, Of every tree of the garden thou may eft freely eat. The man had an ani- mal life, which was to be fuflained by food. The trees of the garden, in great variety, and on every fide, exhibited and offered to him their ripe fruits ; fruits pleafant to the fight and good for food, moil de- licious and nourilhing food : And food which was to cod him no toiifome labour for procuring it ; he had only to drefs the garden and to keep it, an em- ployment which belonged to his pleafure. Of thefe fruits the at) folate Proprietor and Sove- reign of all granted unto him, eltablifned upon him a right to eat ; Thou mayeft freely eat, It is literally on the margin, eating thou jhalt eat ; but more lite- rally (till, to eat thou /halt eat. It referred to a pre- fent eating ; and alfo to a future, a ftill farther eatr ing : Thou /halt eat prefently ; with the fame right ftill to eat, according to every following occafion. And the right thus granted to the man, was not to himfelf individually and exclusively; but, through him, to ail his pofterity : In connexion with the ge- neral and {landing right from the fovereign Proprie- tor of all, to him and them, for ufing the fruits of the earth as the fupport of their animal life, ac- cording to the 29th verfe of the preceding chapter; though, upon his expuifion from the garden, this right was transferred to an eating the fruits of la- bour and toil in cultivating the ground, — then be- come curfed for his fake # . § II. The matter of principal confideration, about the * Gen. iii. 17, l8, 10. Covenant of Works. 23 the right thus granted unto the man, is the Reftric- tion under which it was granted; as that by which it was turned into a covenant-ftate : But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thoujhalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eat eft thereof, thou Jhalt fitrely die. And we may confider this reftriction as expreffcd and enforced, jft, ExprelTed : But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thoufoait not eat of it. We are here in- formed about what, and from what this reftriclion was made. 1 . About what : The tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This was the tree which had been men- tioned in the 9th verfe of this chapter; and was a- gain mentioned in the 3d verfe of the next chapter : A tree in the midft of the garden. It was called The tree of the knowledge of good and evil, not from any thing diftinguifhing in its nature ; but from a divine conltitution concerning it, as may be afterwards ex- plained. 2, From what: Thoufialt not eat of it. This tree the man (and afterwards the woman upon her diftin& formation) knew well enough ; or could mod rea- dily and immediately diftinguiifi it, with abfolute cer- tainty, from all the other trees of the garden. And while he had a right to eat of all the other trees, he was moll: pofitively and absolutely reftri&ed from eat- ing of this. idiy, Enforced : For in the day that thou eateft there- of, thoujhalt fitrely die. Here is a cafe fuppofed, and the confequence of it. 1 . A cafe fuppofed : For in the day that thou eateft thereof Here the man was warned of a hazard which he was in of this eating : A fuppofition was thus made to him, of what foon became a matter of fact,; while the fuppofition was made, for putting him upon his ftrifteft guard againft its becoming fo. And 24 A View of the And he thus got a knowledge, but only a fpeculative knowledge, of the evil oi finning; particularly of this eating, as the only fin which he was immediately in hazard of committing. 2. The confequence of it: As to what the fame would be, and when. (1.) What the confequence would be : Thoujhalt furely die. It is literally, on the margin, dying thou Jhalt die ; but more literally (till, to die thoujhalt die: Referring to both a prefent and a future dying, as may be explained afterwards. And he thus got a knowledge, but only a fpeculative knowledge, of the evil of fuffcring ; as necelfarily connected with the e- vil of finning. (2.) When this confequence would be : In the day that thou eatejl thereof. The dying was thus to be immediate upon the eating, in that very day: While the death then taking effect would be a fure and en- furing pledge of a farther death afterwards. The fum of the whole is, — That God reftricted the firfl man from eating of the tree of the know- ledge of good and evil, upon the pain of death. SECT. II. General Remarks, for a farther opening of the Subjecl. § I. The pofit he law, forbidding the man to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, was not the only law given to him in his primitive eftate. It was, indeed, the only law of obedience then given to him, in the way of external difpenfation. But it was not given to him till after he was created, completely formed as a reafonable creature : And, if he had been under no law of duty till this was given, * Eccl. vil. 29. Covenant of Works. 25 given, he would have been for fome time, however fhort, in a flate of independency upon his glorious Creator. The man, as all other creatures, was made very good ; and in a much higher fenfe than any other part of the vifible creation. God made man upright • ; not merely in the pofture of his body, but mainly in the perfection of his foul. As made after God's image, he had the moral law originally written or impreffed upon his heart : Not indeed under that form in which it was afterwards fummarily difpenf- ed from Sinai, and more fpecially through the holy Scriptures ; but the very fame law upon the matter, in all its extent and fpirituality, — as holy, and juft, and good. His underftanding was formed for dic- tating, and his confcience for enforcing, and his will for practiling according to all his occafions, and his affections for delighting in every moral duty,— manifeftly founded in the nature of God and of man. § II. As the moral law, which was a natural law to the man, had a penalty of death belonging to it ; fo he needed not to have this declared to him, after he was created : For the penalty ■, as well as the frfr ceptive tenor of that law, was fufficiently notified to him in his creation ; in the knowledge and confci- ence of which he was formed. But the cafe was very different with regard to the pofitive law. The eating from which he was reftrict- ed, was, in itfelf, a matter quite indifferent : The evil of it did nowife lie ,in the nature of the thing ; but wholly arofe from that prohibition which God was fovereignly pleafed to make of it. And as the man could have no knowledge of this prohibition, but from an expreffion made of it to him after he was created j it was from the like expreffion only, B that * Eccl, vli. 29. *6 A View of the that he could have any knowledge of the penalty of death, as annexed to the prohibition. And he knew the will of God in all this matter with moft abfolute certainty; from the diflincl language whicrj was made of it to him, in the words now under confideration. § III. There belonged to the pofitive law a pro- mfe of life, as well as a penalry of death. A law was then given to man, which could have given life *. This was plainly implied in the penalty; which could not but mean all its reverfe, — if thou eateft not^ thou fhalt furely live. But that matter was put beyond all doubt, by a tree in the midfr. of the garden (verfe 9.), called the tree of life: While the man muft have known, weil enough, the reafon of the diftinguifliing name given to this, as well as to the other tree in the midfl: of the garden. And the tree of life could not have been fo called from any fuperlative virtue in its nature, for the preferring and prolonging of his animal life : For then he would have been, upon the matter, confined to an eating of that tree,— fo long as it mould bear enough of fruit ; contrary to the right which was bellowed upon him, even meaning an injunction, about the other trees of the garden. That name given to the tree could only arife, therefore, from a divine conftitution concerning it. It was evidently fet forth to the man, as a p edge and fa- cr anient al fign of life; to be fully enjoyed by him, in the way of obedience to that pofitive law which he was now laid under. § IV. While the death to be incurred, by the breach of that law, comprehended all evil of fuffer- i?ig; the life promifed, being the full reverfe of it, muft * Gal. iii. 2 1. Covenant of Works. %j jnuft have comprehended all good of enjoyment. And as the man was evidently defigned, in the nature of his foul, for an eternal duration ; the life pro- mifed could not fimpiy mean a continuance of the life which he then had in the garden, — being a life which could no: have admitted of eternity in its duration. Nothing lefs, therefore, could be in the prouiife, than a (late of eternal life in heaven; where thejnan fhould be advanced to a glorious enjoyment of God, in an immediate manner, — not through any intervention of creature-benefits, or of the exercifes belonging to animal life. This is the eternal life, which (lands oppofed to the wages of fin *. This is the eternal life which our Lord did plainly fet forth, as provided in the promife of the firft cove- nant f. And this is the eternal life of which he has loofed the forfeiture ; by taking upon himfelf, for his people, their penalty of death : That as fin hath reigned unto deaths even fo might grace reign through, righteoufnefs unto eternal life, by Jefus Chriji our Lord }. § V. By the promife of life, the pofitive law was. turned into the nature of a Covenant. The penalty belonged to the nature of it as a law ; but not the promife. The man's obedience could have no intrin- fic merit; being what he naturally and abfolutely owed to his Sovereign Creator. The promife ad- ded to the law, was not therefore an effect of God's juflice ; while the man's obedience could not natu- rally deferve any good, beyond his prefent enjoy- ment. It was an effecl: of God's favour, of his mere good pleafure : So that the man was then an object of God's grace toward him, as undeferving : though it was not till afterwards, that he became an ob- ject of it as ill-deferving, — which lad is the view of grace, as ordinarily mentioned in fcripture. But * Rom. vi. 23. f Luke x. 25,-28. % Rom. v. 21. 28 A View of the But while the man was naturally engaged to God by the taw, God became gracioufiy engaged to him by the promife. And this did conftitute the general nature of a covenant; as it is a tranfaction between two parties, — foi a benefit to be beftowed by the one, upon a condition to be performed by the other. And this is called a Covenant of Life ; as the man was fo be thereby entitled to eternal life, upon a de- termined condition. But it is more commonly cal- led a Covenant of Works; as the man's right or title to eternal life, according to that covenant, Was to lie in his works of obedience, or to depend upon this a mdition : Not from any natural merit of thefe works, but from the gracious conftitution which God then made concerning them. § VI. In this covenant, under the pofitive law, the man was put into a public capacity; as the cove- iiant-htad, or reprefentative of all his natural poftefi- ty. It is evident that God, in dealing with him, was dealing with human nature, with all mankind; fpeak- ing to all, in what was (aid to him. God was then making no eftab ifhment at all about mankind, but as making it immediately with the man : And it would be abfurd to fuppofe that the millions of his pofleri- ty, who were all prefent in God's eye, were then brought under no eftablifhment at all. The law of dominion over the' other vifible crea- tures; the law about the method of fuftaining the a- nimallife; the law for being fruitful, and multiply- ing, and replenifning the earth ; and the law of mar- riage: all thefe were evidently laws for mankind. And it is as evident, that God's covenant-tranf- a&ion vith the man mud have included all men, to proceed from him by ordinary generation ; that be- ing all in him as their natural root, they were like- wife Itated before God in him as their covenant-head. And Covenant of Works. 29 And there can be no other way of accounting for the effect of his tranfgreffmg the law ; that the death which he thereby brought upon himfelf, hath actually paired upon all his natural pofterity, — even them that had not finned after the fimilitade of Adam's tranfgref- fon*. § VII. In dealing with the man, the Lord God was not proceeding only in the characters of a Creator and Lawgiver. As he is effentially and infinitely good, he was then doing good : He dealt bountifully with the man, as an object of his fpecial favour: prevent- ing him with the bleifings of goodnefs. This appears, from the great excellency of the na- ture and ftate in which the man was created ; from the richnefs, beauty, and pleafantnefs of the accom- modation which was provided for him : And from the wonderful condefcenfion of the infinite ONE to- wards him : in {looping fo low, as to hold the great- eft particularity and familiarity of friendly intercourfe with him. But, efpecially, the fmgular goodnefs of God was manifeiled, — by the pofttive fate into which he brought the Covenant of Works. This will come to be par- ticularly explained in another place. It mall only be obferved here,< — That from this tranfaclion, the man was privileged with a great advantage to his faith and hope. Abftraclly from that pofitive conftitu- tion, his profpeel of eternal life was to be inferred from the nature of God, in the unerring dictates of his reafon and confeience. But now, he had the faithfulnefs of God particularly and direclly engaged to him for this, in a fignified and fealed promife of eternal life. SECT. * Rom. v. 14. 39 -^ View of the- SECT. III. Of the Reftri&ion laid upon the firft man. As in the right with which the man was inverted, to eat of every tree of the garden, — he was reltricled from eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; this reftriction was arbitrary, reafonable* abfo- lute, extenfive, probatory, peculiar to our rirft parents, and temporary. § I. The reftri&ion was arbitrary in its nature; wholly founded in the mere will of God, or in his fovereign good pleafure. The moral law, impreffed on his heart, was of a very different nature. There was no neceffity in God for creating man, a reafonable being : But there was fuch a neceffity of creating him under an impref- fion of the moral law; as otherwife he could not have been originally in a itate of active fubjeclion to his Sovereign Creator. This law, therefore, was not founded in the divine pleafure, but in the divine per- fections : Particularly, in God's effential right of mo- ral dominion over his reafonable creature; and his ef- fential claim of obligation upon that creature, for, living in a conformity to the holy nature of his creat- ing Lord *. Nor could this moral law have been any other to the man, in his reafonable nature, than it actually was; while the diftinctions between moral good and evil cannot be arbitrary, more than the at- tributes of the divine nature, in which they are found- ed. A fovereignty in God, which could have fettled thefe diftinctions, in a different, or even an oppo- fite manner, (as fome have imagined in their meta- physeal fpeculations), would have been fuch as could * 1 Pet. i. 16. Covenant of Works. 3* could have difpofed, in the fame manner, of his own infinite properties. And the unalterable (late of thofe diitin&ions cannot depend originally on the unchangeablenefs of the divine will, when once ex- preffed in a law ; but on the unchangeablenefs of the divine nature* But the pofitive law given to the man, after his creation, was wholly an effect of the divine pleafure. It was equal with God, to give or not give it. The forbidden fruit had nothing hurtful in its nature; more than that of any other tree in the garden. The eating of it was not therefore forbidden becaufe evil; but it became evil, by the forbidding of it. § II. The reftri&ion was reafonable. There was no reafonablenefs of it, before it was laid upon the man: But it became reafonable, in the laying of it upon him; as the will of God bears it in a Sufficient rea- fon for itfelf. Though the moral law has a reafon in the nature of God, and in the nature of thofe things which it re- quires and forbids ; yet the will of God is the im- mediate and formal reafon of obedience to him, not the intrinlic natural rationality of the thing. As the fupreme Lawgiver is entitled to the abfolute fubjec- tion of his reafonable creatures ; fo likewife to an i?n- plicit obedience, or fuch as hath no reafon for it but in his will: And it was moft reafonable that he mould require this, as he did in the pofitive law. That law was therefore a moft proper teft, and the only teft then prefcribed to the man, of perfeclly implicit obe- dience to the dhine pleafure ; as the higheft teft of his abfolute fubjeclion and obedience: While the will of God, which is the immediate and formal rea- fon of all proper obedience to him, — was made the mere reafon of it, in the cafe of that pofitive law. And it was moft reafonable, that God mould thus exprefs 32 A View of the exprefs a refervation of his own fupreme and abfolute property in that lower world — over which he had gi- ven a dominion to the man ; as a dominion which did, by no means, make it abfolutely his: And that he mould thus be kept in mind, of his owing all his enjoyments in it tb the divine pteafure; as being ac- countable to God for all his ufe of thefe enjoyments. Beiides, he was thereby mod: properly put in mind, that his fupreme, ultimate and unlimited happinefs could not lie in any benefits of his animal life; but was to be fought in the immediate enjoyment of God himfelf. § III. The reftriclion was abfolute. It is the cafe of every evil which God forbids, — 4hat whatever any way leads or tends to it, is to be underflood as there- in alfo forbidden. And fo it was with regard to the eating now confidered. The fad of eating the fruit was forbidden: And that fo long as the tree mould bear fruit ; or till God mould make a different fignincation of his will. And all imagination, inclination or defire of eating it, was to be underflood as iikewife forbidden. He was not to touch it, as is expreiTed in the third verfe of the next chapter. He was to guard againft all en- tering into a temptation to eat of it; againft all queftioning or reasoning upon the fubjecl, — Ti ad- mitting of any doubt or hefitation about the truth, the abfolutenefs or equity of the prohibition: Such as the ferpent did foon afterwards effectuate. When the tempter entered upon his deceit, no communica- tion mould have been held with him, — no ear fhould have been given to him; no attempt mould have been made, to withfland him in the way of argumenta- tion: As it is the duty of a Chriftian (till, under temptation, — to guard againft all defiling of his mind therewith, by admitting the matter of it into his me- ditation ; Covenant of Works. 33 ditation; while he cannot overcome the temptation, in the way of trying to get himfelf reafoned out of it, — inilead of immediately rejecting it on the firilpro- pofal. And as the man was not to touch the fruit by his hand j fo neither by his eye, nor even by his thought; in any tendency toward eating it. — He was not in- deed abfolutely forbidden to look at it or think of it : But the look and thought were only to be unto frefh recollections of God 5 s will concerning it ; under a full perfuafion of and acquiefcence in the fame. He might thus warrantably look and think, in a difpofi- tion of abfolute and chearful homage to his Sove- reign Lord; with renewed approbations of his will in that matter : And with renewed thankfulnefs for the fufficient provilion which he otherwife enjoyed ; according to all the neceflities of his animal ftate. § IV. The reilriction was exienfive, in the general meaning of it ; though confined, in its terms, to one particular fact- — The pojitive law did not fuper- fede the moral law, or come into the place of it t On the contrary, the whole of this was virtually comprehended in that ; or, as it were, wrapt up in it. The pojitive law is therefore to be confidered as extending to every article of that homage which the man owed to God ; but immediately under the form of compliance with his will about the forbidden fruit* This compliance was a general form of his active and ready fubjeclion to the divine fovereignty and authority ; virtually extending to all the particular difplays thereof, in the precepts and prohibitions of the moral law. In fulfilling the pofitive law, he would fufil the moral law : And in breaking the po* fitive law, he would alfo break the moral law, — it being the fame divine fovereignty and authority which was engage'd in both; fo that a peculiar C trampling 34 -^ View c/ the trampling upon it in the one, was a general tramp- ling upon it in the other likewife : For whofoever Jhall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, be is guilty of all * : . The fum of the whole moral law is this : Thou ffjalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy foul, and with all thyflrength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thy f elf '-j-. Accordingly, the man's love to God and to his own pofterity, as to be manifefted in keeping the pofitive law, — was the fum of, and virtually the whole law under which he then flood. The whole moral law belonged to the law of the Covenant of Works : And that whole Covenant was to be kept or broken, according as the pofitive law ihould be low § V. The reftriction was probatory. The pofitive law was given for a proof and the higheit proof, of the man's abfolute fubjeclion to the will of God : Of his being difpofed to yield implicit obedience to his Sovereign Lord, where he could fee no reafon for his obedience but mere will and pleafure ; a purpofe which could not have been ferved by any precept or prohibition of the moral law. It was thus defigned for a teft of his fidelity, with regard to the whole law of the Covenant of Works: It was made the try- ing point, the turning hinge of the whole ; that the whole was to be kept in keeping this, — and, in break- ing this, the whole was to be broken. And the break- ing of the whole would thus be afcertained, for his conviction, beyond all queflion or excufe ; by one individual, diftinct, and external fact. It was from this conftitution, and not from any thing in the nature of one of the trees in the ttiidft of the garden, that it got the name of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. — It highly concerned the man * James ii. 10. + Luke x. 27. Covenant of Works, 35 man to know the infinite difference between good and evil; as to the doing and enjoying of good, on the one hand, — with the doing and Juffering of evil, on the other : As alfo the infeparable connection between the good of obedience and of bleffednefs ; as between the evil of difobedience and of mifery : And that he could not know, in his behaviour, both the good oi obedience and the *"y/7 of difobedience,-— but only the one or the other ; as alfo that the good of bleffednefs and the evil of mifery, could not fo//Z>, but only the one or the other, be matter of his experience. And his coming to the full enjoyment of all good of bleffednefs, or finking into the depths of all evil of mifery, — was to turn on the hinge of dealing with this tree ; by doing the good of obedience, or the evil of difobedience, — with regard to the reftriction which was laid upon him. In abfiaining from the fruit, he was to know all good experimentally ; and evil only fpe» culatively : But, in eating, he was to know all evil ex- perimentally ; and good only fpecidatively. In the one cafe, he was to know good and evil as God doth ; but in the other cafe, he was to know them as the devil doth, — and, naturally, for ever. At the 2 2d verfe of the next chapter, the infinite Three-in-one and One-in-three comes in fay- ing, according to our tranflation : Behold the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil. It is at lead very hard, to put a decent fenfe upon thefe words. They can only mean a fort of divine irony or ridicule, faying one thing and meaning the contrary, — with regard to fallen man. And it is hard to con- ceive of God's fpeaking fo lightly, about his creature lately fo much favoured, — as newly funk into the deeps of fin and mifery. But the Hebrew text, ac- cording to its punctuation, gives a very different fenfe. — The word tranilated is become, naturally and ordinarily fignifies was : And there is a minor diflinc- tive $6 A View of the five upon the word tranflated the man; by which it is abfolutely feparated from an immediate conftruclion with the following word (which mould be rendered) was, — and ftands in an immediate conftruclion with the foregoing word rendered behold. The man is therefore an accusative governed by the foregoing word; and not a nominative to the following verb. And the proper tranflation, in the true emphaiis mar- ked by the Hebrew punctuation, is this ; Behold the man, he was as one of us; to know good and evil He was fo, but behold what he now is! Mod (Inking* language of divine pity and companion. And as the whole condition of the Covenant of Works was fummed up ? in the one law about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,— reducing the trial of the man's maintaining his firft eftate to that fingle point ; it was by the breach of it that he plunged himfelf into a new and dreadful knowledge of good and evil: Which he has wofully left as an inheritance to his povterity. § VI. The reftriclion was peculiar to the man; ex-* tending to the woman upon her diftincl formation, as one party with him in the Covenant of Works, This is evident, — from there being no natural im- preflion or prefumption of the reftriclion about the forbidden tree, in the hearts or confeiences of any of the man's posterity ; as there is, in fome meafure, of the moral law, the natural law of the Covenant of Works, in the hearts and confeiences of them all. And, indeed, it could not be otherwife; as the re- ftriclion was only the revealed will of God to the man, after he was made upright. — -Befides, almoft all his pofterity were necefTarily to be difperfed; beyond all reach of any bufmefs with that tree. But the matter of chief consideration here, is, — that the reftriclion was the immediate condition of the Covenant Covenant of Works. 37 Covenant of Works, prefcribed to the man, as the covenant-head of mankind; in which view, it could belong to him only : As the keeping or breaking of the Covenant, the fulfilling or failing in its con- dition, could, in the nature of the thing, be by him only, — and not by any of his natural pofterity. Had he flood, they could not have fallen, — confidently with his covenant-headfhip: Had he perfevered in the fulfilling of the condition, till the time of his trial fhould have been expired ; he and they would have been confirmed, againft all hazard of any future break- ing of it, — even fuch of them as might have conti- nued or come within the reach of the forbidden fruit. And as it was not to be their abftaining, but his ab- ftaining from that fruit, on which the keeping and good effedt of the Covenant was to depend; while the condition of it, in the aforefaid reftri&ion, was prefcribed to him alone : Immediately upon his breaking thereof, both he and they were expelled from all future accefs to any tree in the garden. § VII. The reftri&ion was temporary, as to the man's abftaining from the forbidden tree. — He was, by no means, formed for an eternity in the exercifes of an animal life, about any tree in the garden. And as his abftaining from that tree, was the immediate condition of the Covenant of Works; this condition muft have been fulfilled, in fome period of his tem- poral ftate. That Covenant had a promife of eternal life in hea- ven ; of immediate and glorious communion with God, infinitely above all animal exercifes and enjoy- ments. But he could not have been advanced to that happy ftate, till the condition of the Covenant was fulfilled : And if it had not been to be fo at a certain length of time, but to be always running on in the fulfilling 38 A View of the fulfilling; the promife would have been quite vain, the promifed life never to be obtained. Ihis condition mud therefore have been fulfilled at a certain moment ; when he would have been no longer in a (late of trial, but brought into a ft ate of confirmation, — as the angels who left not their own habitation. And all his pofterity, after that hfue of his trial, mud have been confirmed in and with him for ever ; according to the very nature of the Cove- nant. For his covenant-headjhip could have been of rio reality, without communicating his confirming right eoufnefs to them if he had flood; as he commu- nicated his condemning guiltinefs to them, upon his falling into the breach of the Covenant made with fhem in him. As to what we may reafonably fuppofe, about the time, and manner, and circumftances, of the cove- nant-condition coming to be fulfilled,- — according to the nature of the Covenant, and the man's reprefen- tation in it; fome account may be given in another chapter. SECT. IV. Of the Penalty under which the Reftriction was laid upon the fir jt Man. As the man was reftricted from eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, upon the pain of death ; he certainly knew what was meant by the denounced death, as comprehending all evil of pu- nifhment and furTering. But the particular ftate of his knowledge upon this head, fo long as he had it only for a matter of fpeculative apprehenfion, — can- not now be explained. We are therefore to confi- der it as it proved to be, when become a matter of fact in woful experience. Accordingly there was meant Covenant of Works. 39 was meant a death prefent, future, jufl, infallible, per- manent, univerfal, and peculiar y connected with an eating of the forbidden fruit. § I. The penalty meant a prcfent death, accord- ing to the exprefs terms of it, — for in the day that thou eateji thereof^ thou /halt furely die. The eating and the dying were to be both in the very fame dav. This did not only mean his immediately becoming liable to death, as laid under a fentence of death; and fo, becoming judicially dead. Nor did it mean only a begun mortality in the ftate of his body; its im- mediately becoming difpofed toward a diflblution, through a begun principle of animal diforder. But, in the moment of his eating, there was an acl'ialzxi^L real death inflicted upon him; as, otherwife, the pe- nalty could not have been verified, according to the truth and propriety of its terms. And this was a death as to the ftate of his foul, in an immediate feparation of it from God ; infinitely- more dreadful, than the feparation to be afterwards made of it from his body. In this fpiritual death, he loft his original conformity to God ; friendly com- munion with him^ and favourable communications from him : His confcience became poflefTed and de- filed by guilt ; abolifhing confidence in God, and making him a terror to the finning creature : His love to God, as a friend, was extinguifhed ; giving place to hatred of him as an enemy : His under/landing was horribly darkened ; through a withdrawing of that light of the glorious perfections and fpecial favour of God, which had been directly mining into it : His will was ftated in a wicked contradiction to the au- thority and will of God: And his affeclions, turned quite away from God; were let upon a moft vain fearch of happinefs in the enjoyments of his animal life. Thus, his foul did immediately fink into a ftate of 4a A View of the of univerfal corruption ; of abfolute difconformity unto, and alienation from God : And as this prefent death was, in one refpecl, mod finful; it was, in another refpect, a dreadful punifhment of fin. § II. The penalty meant a future death. It ftrict- ly runs, as hath been obferved ; to die, or to a dying thou JJoalt die : Thou Jhalt die preiently, in the very day of eating ; but (till to die, or toward a future dy- ing afterwards. He immediately became dead, as to the all of the threatened death, judicially ; but not actually. Though the execution of the fentence was immediately begun* yet not toward a being imme- diately nnifhed or completed: As this could not have confuted with the manifeft necefiity of his being pre- ferved, during fome time, in a capacity for the pro^ pagation of his offspring, who were to be partakers with him in the death. This future death is twofold; in time, and beyond time : Or, on earth and in hell. if, He was to undergo a further death in time; or on earth, st the end of his time. And this death was to confnt in a feparation of his foul from his body : For, as God had formed his body of the dufl: of the ground, — the penalty did comprehend this dreadful article; unto dujl thou jhalt return *. The man, in his primitive condition, was immor- tal, as to the ftate of his body. Had he flood, the union of his foul and body could never have been diffolved. This doth not imply, that his body had then a natural immortality, like his foul: For it was naturally diflblvable or feparabie into parts, as much as now. But it was then under a pofitive conititu- tion or eftablifhment, for an unimpairable ftate of prefervation, in a perpetual union with his foul, — > by the fovereign will and power of God j from which he * Gen. iii. J 9. Covenant of Works. 41 he wofully fell, by falling into fin. And it is to be iuppofed, that the fame immortal condition would have belonged to all his pofterity, if he had flood; as they muft have flood in and with him, according to the nature of the covenant: Without fuppofing that they mud have all continued on the earth, till all were brought forth ; for they might have been gradually tranflated in their times, as Enoch was,— ?rfo that the earth would have never been overpeopled. But, by fin, bodily death entered into the world of mankind. idly, He was fentenced to undergo a iti'l further death, beyond time ; or, in hell, as the place of final punilhment. This death was to be the reverfe of the eternal life promifed in the Covenant of Works: As it is likewife the reverfe of that eternal life which is provided in the Covenant of Grace *-. This death means the deftruclion of both foul and body in hell : To take effecl upon the foul, immediately on its fe- paration from the body ; and on both foul and bo-^ dy as reunited, in the refurre&ion of this from the grave. And fuch was to be the corapletement of the penalty in its execution: A (late of abfolute lofs, as to all forts and even appearance of good; in fuller- ing all extremities of fenfibie punilhment. § III. The penalty meant a jujl death. The wages of fin is death * ; wages no ways exceeding the de- merit of the work. It is the judgment of God, that thefe who perpetrate fuch work not only are to un- dergo, but are worthy of death f. Sin is an abfolute oppofition to the infinite perfections and goodnefs of God, his infinite authority and power. It is the all of one fort of evil, againft God ; and therefore it muft deferve the all of the other fort of evil, from God. As the finner will not have God to be for him, D he * Rom. vi. 23. f Rom. i. 32. 42 A View of the he mufl have God againji him ; wholly for or againft him. The hollnefs of God flands in an infinite and abso- lute oppofition to fin ; which therefore cannot but be effeclive in the punifhment of the tinner, as the fun's light is effective againft darknefs. And God's mo- ral dominion over the reafonable creature, cannot be maintained, but in one of two ways ; either in that creature's active fubjection to his preceptive will, or paflive fubjection to his punijhing will : For if the crea- ture could fliake off, or be exempted from both, he would immediately be in a ftate of moral indepen- dence upon God. The infinite ONE would therefore be, upon the matter, renouncing the fovereignty of his being, and the righteoufnefs of his nature, fhould he fuffer fin to pafs altogether unpunifhed. And the finning crea- ture being made for an eternity of exiftence; while he can never make an atonement for the fin which he has committed, as he can never recover himfelf from finning: The punifhment of his fin mufl there- fore be eternal ; as will be more particularly ohferv- in a little. Moreover, though fin be a finite difpo- fition or action, as belonging to or committed by a finite being; it mufl be of infinite malignity, — as it is an hoftility againft the infinite Being, in all his perfections, yea in his very exiftence: And it mufl therefore deferve all extremity of punifhment to which the fmner can be fubjected. And the faithfulnefs of God is engaged for this, in the penalty of his law ; a penalty not arbitrary, — but founded in the righteoufnefs and rights of his nature, equally with the precepts. The death de- nounced is therefore abfolutely juft : And there is a neceffity of its being inflicted upon the finner, or upon a furety in his place ; as abfolutely indifpen- fable, as the neceility of God's not denying himfelf. § IV. Covenant of Works. 43 § IV. The penalty meant an infallible death. This is evident from the jujinefs of it, which has been confidered. It is likewife abfolutely and unconditi. onally denounced, in the penalty of the law : While the infallibility of it, as to its effect, is eftablilhed in the faithfulnefs, yea in the very nature of God ; as alfo in the intrinfic nature of fin, and its elfen- tial tendency toward fuffering. But that infallibility of the death, befide this ge- neral ftate of it, is to be confidered likewife in a more particular view ; as it Hands in a confiftency, yea in a connection with all the difpenfations of God's forbearance, or long-fuffering patience : And with his bellowing of many providential favours or privileges upon fuch as are continuing under the fentence of that death ; even loading them with fuch benefits. It is not a blind and impetuous neceffitVj of punifhing fin which belongs to the divine nature ; like that of the fun mining, or the fire burning. The gofpel manifefts, that the penalty did leave room for the fubflitution of a furety to bear its effect : And it quickly appeared in providence, that there was ftiil an open door for delays, as to that fu- ture death which it meant — with regard to thofe con- tinuing under it. Though there is no redemption from the temporal death as to the matter of it, but only from its penal nature ; yet there are confident delays of it, for various lengths of time. The man was not overtaken by it, till nine hundred and thir- ty years after his fall : And though it is to be fup- pofed that he had a begun recovery, upon the ground of the promife given to him when newly fallen; yet there is no reafon to fuppofe, in the cafe of his hav- ing ftili continued under the penalty, that this death would have overtaken him any fooner. And fuch delays did neceffarily belong to God's original conftitution, about the production of the hu- man 44 A View of the man kind. They were to be produced in the way of natural propagation, from one race to another: And as it was ncceflary, that the world mould be conti- nued in a (late admitting of inch propagation; fo al- fo, that men mould be continued in it, through dif- ferent lengths and various conveniences of life, for the fame purpofe. It is therefore evident, that the {landing of this world in its prefent ftate, after the man's fall, was no wife properly owing to the inter- pofition of the Mediator : But that the continuance of this (late was fecured by the penalty, till the ge- nerations of mankind mould be completed; as it ne- ceffarily required the production of all the feed who finned in, and fell with the ftrft man, — for having an immediate effect upon fheni. Though the threatened death was infallibly to take effect, or fin was neceffarily to be punifhed ; yet the divine fovereignty and wifdom were alfo to have an ef- fect in fettling the times and other circumftances of the punifhment, — particularly as to thefenfiblc parts there- of. And there is no ineonfiftency of any providen- tial favours or privileges beflowed on men, with their continued and full fubjeclion to the legal penalty, — or with the nature of that penalty itfelf : Becaufe, under all thefe enjoyments, it is ftill taking a fecret and infenjible effect upon them; as God is ftill deal- ing judicially with them, — curfing their bleffings, their baiket and their ftore. And fo, through their mif- improvement and abufe of fuch bleffings, they are judicially hardened in fin; unto a being more and more ripened for that full effect, which the death meant in the penalty will moft infallibly and dread- fully have upon them, at the end of their times. So it is, as to the natural and moft grievous ftate of matters. The fupernatural and moft gracious ftate thereof, under another covenant, — is of a very dif- ferent confideration. §v. Covenant of Works. 45 § V. The penalty meant a permanent death. The execution of it was not to be over at a certain time; as the punifhment of death, annexed to the tranfgref- fion of a human law. The death meant in the penalty- was to be an ever-dying ; ever fuffering the pains of death, without intermillion or end. The temporal death, in the feparation of the foul from the body, was indeed to be over and ended, as to the material fact of it, — -in a feafon of God's ap- pointment. But it was likewife to be of a permanent nature, not only as excluding from all return into the former condition; but mainly, as the punifhment fuffered therein was to be continued upon the foul, — immediately configned thereby to the ftate of death in hell. And this death, firft of the foul, afterwards of foul and body reunited, was to be eternal: Agreea- bly to the eternal duration of the finner, with the nature and demerit of fin; and according to mod ex- prefs teftimonies of holy Scripture. It is called, in general, eternal judgment * ; ever lafling contempt \ ; and ev er I afling punifhment \, And an endlefs perma- nency belongs to the fenfible nature of this dying; a permanent fuffering of all the inexpremble agonies of that death, without any abatement for ever : As it is called everlafting burnings || ; ever lofting fire § ; a fuffering the vengeance of eternal fire * * ; where their worm (a tormenting confeience) dieth not, and the f re (of God's vengeance) never fhall be quenched f f ; a furnace of fire, there jhall be wailing and gyiafhing of teeth \\, And thus it is, that the death meant in the penalty was to be a rnofl proper and/#//reverfe of the eternal life which was promifed to the man upon his obedience; * Heb. vi. 2. f Dan. xii. 2. J Matth. xxv. 46, || Ifa. xxxiii. 14. § MaUh. xxv. 41. ** Jude ver. 7. ff Mark ix. 43, 44, J± Matth. xiii. 42. 46 A View of the Obedience ; and is now the gift of God, through Jefus Chrift our Lord* But, in a particular manner, the fpiriiual death, which was to take effect in the very day of eating the forbidden fruit, — hath an efiential permanency be- longing to it. The death of the foul, in the uni- versal corruption or depravity thereof, bears upon it a (lamp of eternity; according to its nature, it mult be perpetual. The power of God could not be ex- erted in recovering from it, fconiiftently with the righteoulnefs and rights of his nature; without iuch an atonement for fin as no creature could make, or even devife. The finner could have neither any a- bility nor inclination to recover himfelf, in return- ing to God; he is absolutely without lfrength, and loves to have it fo. Wherefore, the depravity of his foul is naturally quite incurable, for ever. This death is otherwife reprefented as a (late of univerfal dif- eafe : The whole head is fick, and the whole heart faint; from the fole of the foot even unto the head, there is no foundnefs in it, but wounds and bruifes and putrifying fores *. And though the natural body, under a dif- eafe, may ftiil retain a principle of recovery ; fo as nature can get the better of this difeafe : Yet no fuch principle remains under that foul-difeafe : Nothing but a natural, or eflential and infallible tendency to- ward eternal death in hell : where the death of the foul is to be continued in a (late of abfolute corrup- tion and finning^ as well as of fuffering, for ever. § VI. The" penalty meant an univerfal death. It did not merely ascertain the death of the individual man then exifting, in the event of his tranfgreffion ; but likewife of all his pofterity, who mould exift in fucceiTive generations. The Lord G invifible, the only wife God ||. He is the mighty God, the everlafting Father ; or, Father of eternity §. He is the beginning and the ending ; which is, and which was, and which is to come ; thefirft and the lafl; the Almighty **. And the Scripture abounds with particular afcriptions of divine properties to him. — Moreover, by him were all things created, that are in heaven and that are in earth ; vtftble and invi- fible ; whether they be thrones, or doininions, or princi- palities, or powers : All things were created by him and for him', and he is before all things, and by him all things confift |j-. — Accordingly the call is given con- cerning him ; let all the Angels of God worflnp him : And it is required, that at the name of Jefus every knee * Hof. vi. 7, f i John v. 20. ; Rom. ix. 5. ; 1 Tim. vj. 15. X Jcr. xxiii. 6. ; Mai. in. 1. ; iv. 5. || 1 Tim.,i. 17. $ Ifa. ix. 6. ** Rev. i. 8. ; xxii. 13. ft ^ ol - >• I<5 > »7- 6z A View of the knee Jhould bow, — and that every tongue Jhould confefs, that Jcfus Chriji is Lord-, Lord of all** idly, Jesus Christ is a divine Perfon, the per- fonal Word of God. There are three that bear record in heaven ; the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghoji : And thefe three are Qne|. Thefe do not merely agree hi one ; but they are all one Being, one and the fame Being, fubfifting in three Perfons. Each of the Perfons is the only living and true God', and all of them are fo, in the fame one Godhead. Our Lord avouched this glorious truth concerning himfelf; I and my Father are one \ . He is God, not abfolutely, but in the fecond Per- fon of the adorable Trinity. He is not merely an attribute or quality of the, Godhead, but a Perfon fubfifting in it; to whom rnoft diftinguiming rela- tions and actions, of the higheft importance, are afcribed, — fuch as the Scripture cannot admit of be- ing afcribed to the Father or Spirit: And which can- not, without grofs abfurdity, be afcribed to an at- tribute or quality. He is begotten of the Father, the Son of God, by an eternal and neceflary genera- tion ; deriving from the Father, not Godhead, but Perfonality: While he is the fame in fubftance, e- qual in power and glory. There is nothing more plainly taught in Scrip- ture, than this rnyftery of the Three-one, the One- three-God. And it is taught for being believed by us, as the glorious and only foundation of theChri- flian religion ; of the whole doctrine of the grace of God, in the falvation of Tinners. But it is not taught for being co?nprchendedhy us, which is impofTi- ble. And its being infinitely above the comprehen- fion of finite minds, is no reafon why it mould be re- jected by us. We might well enough aflert that it would * Hcb. i*. 6. ; Phil. it*. 10, ii.; Ads x, 36.. f 1 John v. 7. \ John x. 30. Covenant of Works. 63 would be a contradiction or abfurdity, if one finite being were faid to fubfift in different perfons : But we cannot reafonably pretend any fuch thing, a- bout the doctrine of different perfonalities in one infi- nite Being ; becaufe it is quite irrational to pretend that we may judge of what is competent to fuch a Being, whom we cannot comprehend. This whole character of Jefus Chrift, is merely a matter of faith, not of reafon : Being effential to that doctrine, which we mult believe, and be faved; or diibelieve, and be damned. And it mud be grofsly unreafonable, as well as impious, to reject the revelation which God has mod plainly made to us that thefe things are fo ; becaufe we cannot find an anfwer to the queftion, about how thefe things can be fo : While a fearching mind muff. be reduced to an infuperable nonplus, even about the moft common things in nature. We have no knowledge about any material fubftance, or bit of mat- ter, but in its fenfible qualities : We know that thefe qualities are not the fubftance : Yet what is the fub- ftance to which they belong, what it is abftra&ly from all thefe qualities, — is quite unintelligible by us. Thus, the moft philofophic mind will lofe itfelf, when obftinately fearching into the nature of a blade of grafs or draw. 2,dly, Jesus Christ is God-man, The mighty God, the Father of eternity^ in the perfon of the eternal Son, — became a Child born, a Son given unto us *, The Word, who eflentially was God, and perfonally was with God, — was made fiejh, and dwelt among usf. God was manifefled in the fieJJj J. — Next the myftery of the holy Trinity, is the myftery of the. Incarnation of the eternal Son. He affumed a true body and a reafonable foul ; the whole of what makes a perfon in us : But as affumed by him, it did not make a perfon; * Ifa, jx. (5, f John i. i ; 14. % 1 Tim. ill 16, t>4 A View of the per/on; having never had any feparate or diftinct fubfiflence and agency, or otherwife than as in a ftate of union with his divine Per/on *. It was there- fore the human nature, of a public and common rela- tion to mankind-fmners as fuch (though for the fal- vation of fome only) that he affumed; and not a human perfon, of a private and peculiar relation to any. And fuch is the wonderful union of the divine and human natures in his perion, that the peculiarities of each nature are afcribed to the perfon : What things originally belong to the different natures, are not afcribed feparately to thefe natures ; but dill to to the one perfon Jefus Chrifi, God-man. He was ftill a divine Perfon in the human nature ; and what originally belongs to his nature, is affirmed of the divine Perfon. It is affirmed, that God laid down his life for us; and that God hath pur chafed the Church with his own blood ; and that the righteoufnefs of his obedience, as made of a woman, made under the law, is the righteoufnefs of God], — Such is the won- derful conftitution of his perfon : From which he is an all-fufficient Saviour 5 an infinite dignity, value and merit, belonging to what he did and fuffered itk human nature. 4thly> Jesus Christ is a Mediator, There is one God; and one Mediator between God and men, the man Chriji Jefus \, In the myfterious conftitution of his perfon, he h a middle-perfon between God and man ; being himfelf both God and man* And he was mod fitly conflituted into the office of a Mediator be- tween * In us, the foul is not now a per/on, as having never h?;d any feparate or di Hindi fubfiflence ; but the foul in union wjih the body makes the perfon: At death, the Joul becomes a per/on ; as a feparate or all come (the Comer i the coming One) will come, and will not tarry ||. Now, the firft man is faid to have been the figure of him; an eminent type, or pattern, or figurative reprefentation of him. The firft man was i'o, in a perfect diftinclion from all other mere men. And in what fenfe was he, or could he be fo? In no other imaginable fenfe, but that of a public character belong- ing to each. Jefus Chrift bears the character of a Co- venant-head, reprefenting all his fpiritual feed : And the firft man's having been the figure of him, muft therefore mean, — that this man bore the character of a Covenant-head, reprefenting all his natural feed; that he did fo while maintaining, and in falling from his primitive integrity. Athly y * Pfal. xl. 7, 8. f Matth. xi. 3. ; Luke vii, 19, 2Q. \ A&s i. 11. ; Rev. i. 7. || Heb. x. 37. ?6 A View of the 4thly, God's Covenant- dealing with the fir ft man as a public per/on, appears from Roin. v. iS. There- fore, as by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation : Even fo, by the righteoufnefs of one, the free gift came upon all men unto jujlif cation of life, — The different readings in this verfe, accord- ing to the margin, are of no material confequence : Nor is there any neceflity for examining the pro- priety of the fupplements which are made by repeti- tions from the 16th verfe. It is enough here, to confider the oppofition which is ftated betwixt two matters of the greateft imports ance; condemnation, and jufl'ification. On the one hand, there is a condemnation of all men; which mud be taken in a natural fenfe, as meaning the all of Adam's men. On the other hand, there is a juftifi- cation of all men ; which mufl be taken in a gracious fenfe, as meaning the all of Christ's men. The condemnation of the one body of all men, is by the offence of one ; by his one offence : And the juflifica- tion of the other body of all men, is by the righ- teoufnefs of one ; by his one righteoufnefs. There can be no queftion here, but the fmgular parties meant are thefrf man and Jefus Chrift. And uhile juftification comes by the one righteoufnefs of Jesus Christ, as a Covenant-head of all who are graci-i oufly juftified; fo the condemnation mull have come by the one offence of the firft man, as the Covenant- head of all who are naturally condemned. Sthly, God's Covenant-dealing with the firft man as a public per/on, appears from Rom. v. 19. For as, by one man's difobedience, many zuere ??iade firmer s ; fo, by the obedience of one, fhall many be made righteous. — The parallel and oppofition which had been ftated in the preceding verfe, between the firjl man and Jefus Chriji, is continued in this verfe ; but with a more immediate regard to the Covenant-headihip of each Covenant of Works, 77 each : While the condemnation and j unification there mentioned, do fuppofe and proceed upon the guilti- nefs and right eoufncfs here meant ; as firfl pafiing from them, feverally, upon their feed. And the head (hips of both, from which only ail thefe mat- ters can be derived, are here let forth, — as mutually illuftrating each other. By one ?nan 9 s dif obedience many, even all his natu- ral feed, vuere wade finners ; were made fc y in re- fpecl ot guiltinefs, by the imputation of his diibbe- dience to them : For in no fenfe could they be made finners by his difobedience, but in that of its being reckoned their difobedience in him; that they were made finners, by their clifobeying in his difobeying as their reprefentative. — And to this is anfwerable the oppofite cafe; that by the obedience of 'one ; Jefus Chuiiyjhaii many, even all his fpiritual feed, be made righteous : Made (o, by the imputation of his obe- dience to them ; it being reckoned their obedience in him, by their having obeyed in his obeying as their reprefentative. — The Covenant -headmips of the lingular parties here referred to, are therefore equal- ly unqueftionable: And the do&rines of both are quite infeparable, in the Chritlian religion. tthly, God's Covenant-dealing with the firft man as a public pcrfon, appears from 1 Cor. xv. 21, 22. For fince by i man came death y by man came alfo the refurreclion of the dead : For as in Adam all die, even fo in Chrifl J hall all be made alive. Thefe words contain a glorious aifurance, that in Chrifl jhall all be made alive; the all of his fpiritual feed. He is the Prince of life, or, (as on the mar- gin) the Author of life * ; of all their new and blelfed life. He is their life f . His mediatory life is a public life, which they have in and with him ; raifed up together, and made to fit together in heavenly places, m * Ads ill. 15. f Col. iii. 4. 7^ A View of the hi Chrlji Jcfus : and thus they have to fay, as he is, Jo are we in this world*, — It is through him and from him, that they have a life pf jtiftification ; a life in God's favour ; jujl'ifi cation cf life, living as juftifi- ed perfons : Thus alive in law ; in oppofition to their natural eitate of being dead in law, under condem- nation f. It is through and from him that they have afpiritual life; fpiritually quickened, raifed up to walk in newnefs of life, as alive unto God through jfe- fus Chriji our Lord : In oppofition to their natural eftate, of being dead in trefpaffes and fins \. It is through him and from him, that there comes to be a bleffed rcfurreclion of the dead. And he gives un- to them eternal life ; now in the gracious beginning of it, as afterwards in the glorious perfection of it ||. — But he is the head of all this life unto them, only as he hath become a head of righteoufnefs unto them : He having fulfilled all the righteoufnefs of the law for them, in the Covenant-repreientation which he made of them; fo that his rightecuxiiefs becomes, their righteoufnefs in him. And this New Covenant (late runs parallel to the Old Covenant flate of matters, that in Adam all die ; the all of his natural feed. Ah of them died in him, in the death which he became !ubjec~ted unto by his fir ft fin. They all became liable to fpitirual and eter- nal death; and particularly to that curfed bodily death, which is the vifible reprefentation and pledge of ail the other death comprehended in the penalty of the law. He thus became a head of death to all his natural poflerity : And, in the nature of the thing, as well as according to the parallel ; this mud have been through his having become a head of w- righteoufnefs to them : He having broken the law, the rule of righteoufnefs as the condition of life, in a Co- * Eph. ii. 6. ; I John iv. 17. f Pfal. xxx. 5. ; Rom. v. 18. % Rom Yi*. 4, 11.; Eph. ii. 1. jj John x. 2$. Covenant of Works. Jp a Coveftant-reprefentation which he made of them ; fo that his unrighteoufnefs became their unrighte- oufnefs in him. — His Covenant-headfhip is therefore as unqueftionable, as that of Jesus Christ. jthly, God's Covenant- dealing with the firft man as a public perfon, appears from i Cor. xv. 47. The firft man is of the earth, earthy ' The fecond man is the Lord from heaven. — As to the two mod remarkable men here meant ; the firft man is faid to be of the earth, earthy : His body having been formed of the duft of the ground, he foon fell into a (late of frail- ty and mortality, for returning to the duft ; having* forfeited, for himfelf and his pofterity, all the hap- pinefs which had been promifed in the Covenant made with him. The fecond ?na?i is the Lord from heaven, the Lord Jefus Chrift : Who came from heaven, in refpect of the wonderful manifeftation which he made of himfelf on earth in human na- ture. Thefe two men could ftand in no comparifon with regard to their per fonal char aclers ; being diftant as heaven and earth, and different as God and a crea- ture. They appeared on earth, in periods of about four thoufand years from each other ; many milli- ons of men having intervened between them : Yet they are called the firft and fecond man ; which mult be in a fenfe that cannot admit of any third man, in the fame order. And no reafon can be conceived for fuch defignations of them, but in a public characler belonging to each of thefe two men; fuch as cannot be afcribed to any third man. The fecond man, the Lord from heaven, unqueftionably bears fuch a character as the Covenant-head of all elect men : And therefore the firft man mud be confidered as having borne fuch a characler, in be- ing the Covenant-head of all mere men. No o- ther fenfe can be put upon the parallel here dated; and 8o A View of the and fo, the former conclufion comes juftiy to be re-* peated ; that the Covenant head/hip of the firft man is as unqueftionable, as that of the fecond man the Lord from heaven. § III. Upon the whole, — the Covenant of Works mide with the firft man tor himfelf and all his na* tural pofterity, is referred to under the character of the Old Covenant ; in Htb. xii. 24. Jefus 9 the Mediator of the New Covenant. The one Covenant of Grace is fpoken of in Scrip- ture as being two ; Covenants of promife, old and new*. But this is only with regard to two different adminiftrations of the fame one Covenant of Grace, under the Old and New Teftaments. And when Je- fus is called the Mediator of the New Covenant , this may have a Subordinate refpect to the new admini- Jlration of it by the Gofpel ; as making a more open and glorious difplay of his mediatory character. Par- ticularly, there may be fuch refpect to it in this new administration, — as diftinguifhed from what is called the Sinaitic Covenant : About which various things have been written, not confident with the analogy of faith, or the general flate of fcripture-doctrine ; and various things, the felf-confiftence and fenfe of which feem not to fall within the compafs of hu- man underftanding. But this is not a place for en- tering into that fubject. Yet the one Covenant of Grace was no lefs real- ly, however differently, adminiftered under the Old Teitament than under the New. Jefus, the Media- tor of it under the Gofpel, was no lefs really, how- ever differently, the Mediator of it under the legal difpenfation ; and was exhibited as fuch, all along from the revelation made of him and it, to fallen man, in the firft promife. When, therefore, the Covenant * Eph. ii. 12.; Heb. fill. 13. Covenant of Works. 8i Covenant of Grace is called the New Covenant ; this definition can bear no complete fenfe, but as refer- ring, principal y and ultimately, to another as the Ola Covenant, abfolutely different fiorn the Cove- nant of Grace in every administration of it. If any juilice be done to the language, — when ye fits is, in a general and abfolute manner, called the Media- for of the New Covenant ; it muft be taken as pri- marily referring to an Old Covenant, of which Jefus was no wife a Mediator. And this can be no other but the Covenant of Works made with the firfl: man ; unto which, as broken, the Covenant of Grace has fucceeded. — -And while we can now make no proper account of the Covenant of Works, but for lead- ing us forward to the Covenant of Grace ; we can make no proper account of the Covenant of Grace, but in its relation to the Covenant of Works. The doctrines of ihefe two Covenants, in the public ca- pacities of the two Covenant-heads, — mud be whol- ly received by us, or wholly rejected : they cannot 9 . coni'iiteiitly, be feparated in our acknowledgment. SECT. II. Of the Nature of God's Covenant -dealing with the firjl Man as a public P erf on. § I. The divine eftablifhment with mankind, in the firft man, is what the Scripture calls a law *, being naturally a Covenant-law. But it is not, in Scripture;, called by the name of a Covenant ; if not in a text formerly quoted, they like men (on the mar- gin like Adani) have tranfgreffed the Covenant f. How- ever, it is moft evidently reprefented in Scripture, as bearing the nature of a Covenant. It was a real tranfa&ion between two great par- I ties ? * Rom. x. 5. ; Gal. ii. 21. f Hof. vi. 7, 82 A View of the ties, God and man; moft proper parties, though in- finitely different, — man as nothing to God : Yet the man was the greateft of all mere men, as being wholly an upright man ; and comprehending, in himfelf, all mankind. The tranfaclion was upon a fubj-ct of the greateft concern; the everlafting hap- pinefs or mifery of mankind. On God's part there was a promt fe of eternal life ; upon the undertaken condition, on man's part of perfect obedience to his law : With a penalty of eternal death, in the event of difobedience. And nothing more could be ef- iential to a proper Covenant. — But the nature of this Covenant of Works may be illuftrated, by contrait- ing it with other Covenants mentioned in Scripture. § II. According to the mod general fenfe of the word Covenant in Scripture, it denotes a divine or- dination and eft abli foment in the material world. Such was God's Covenant with Noah: Eftablifhing with him, and with his feed after him, — and with the fowl, the cattle, and every bead of the earth ; that all rlefh mould not be cut off any more by the wa- ters of a flood, that there mould not be any more a flood to deftroy the earth *. Such is God's Co- venant with day and night, eftablifhing the fuccef- fion thereof f. And fuch is God's Covenant for his people, — with the beafts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground ; eftablifhing for them, a fpecial fu- periority over all thefe J. — But as no undertaking party, nor any fubject of undertaking, belong to a Covenant of that fort ; it can admit of no compa- rison with the Covenant of Works. § III. The Scripture reveals the precious myftery of the Covenant of Grace ; which God the Father entered * Gen. ix. 9, io, ii. f Jer. xxxiii. 25. J Hof, ii. 1$. Covenant of Works. 83 entered Into, from eternity, with his coeffential Son, — as to become one of the people in a ilate of in- carnation *. And there is a fmgular agreement of this with the Covenant of Works ; as a fulfilling the righteoufnefs, and a fatisfying for the brer.ch of the latter, was the proper condition of the former. But they differ infinitely, as to the character of the un- dertaking parties in each ; differing like wife, as to the ftate and number of thofe for whom they did feverally undertake : While the Covenant 'of Grace had not, as it could not have any penalty ; becauie there could be no fuppofition of any poflible failure, on the fide of the glorious Undertaker. § IV. God made a Covenant with Abraham, con- taining promifes of great bleffings to him and his feed ; particularly, an inheritance of the earthly Canaan : And likewife a prefcription of duties, to be performed on his part f. But this had nothing of the nature of the Covenant of Works : For the performance of thefe duties was not required, as a condition by which he was to be entitled to the blef- fings promifed ; that he might receive them as not of grace, but of debt. He was not juftified before God by works : The promife that he mould be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham or to his feed through the law ; but through the righteoufnefs of faith J. It was, therefore, a peculiar adminiftra- tion of the Covenant of Grace that God entered in- to with him ; by which he was fet a looking forward to the promifed Meffiah and his righteoufnefs, as the great object of his confidence and hope : Not mere- ly for earthly benefits ; but mainly for fpiritual fal- vation, to be fully enjoyed in the heavenly Canaan f|. And his works of obedience were no wife the pro- curing * Pfal. Ixxxix. 3, 28. f Gen. xv. i, 2, 3, 7.; xvil. r, — 13. t Horn. iv. 2, 13. || John mi. 56.; Heb. xi. 13,-16. 84 A View of the curing or meritorious caufe of his enjoying the pror mifed bleffings, according fo the tenor of the Co- venant of Works ; but they were the gracious con- fequence of his believed interell in all thefe blellings, upon the ground of the Covenant of Grace. § V. God made a Covenant with Tfrael at Sinai. Many things pertaining to the Sinaitic dirpenfation, with many erroneous or groundiefs notions which have been broached concerning it, — are not neceiia y for being confidered in this place. But the follow- ing obfervations may be rq , ;de here on that iubjeft. ijfi, The whole moral law was difpenfed from Si- nai, as fummed' up in ten commandments ; by a mod awful proclamation which the Lord made of it, and bv his miraculous writing of it upon two tables of flone : Being thus difpenfed as a Covenant-law », or in the form of the Covenant of Works *, The fame law, in the fame form, had been mate- rially imprefTed upon the foul of upright man in his Creation; written upon the flefhly tables of his heart: And, all along till now, his pofterity had been na- turally under it as the law of a broken Covenant ; known to them, in the remans of its natural im- preffion upon their hearts. But now, this law was brought into an external difpenfation, and in a per- fect ltate ; it ill in its original form as a Covenant-law : According to the declaration which God made, contending his ftatutes and judgments in that hw ; which if a man do, he JJoall live in them. Mofes was then defcribing the righteoufnefs which is of the law; Thai the man which doth thefe things /hall live by them ; Being the fame Liw, which is not of faith ; but the man that doth than jhall live in them. And indeed, as may be explained in another place, * Exod. xx. i, — 17-; Dent. iv. 13.; ix. 9, IF.; Lev. sviii. 5. ; Ezek. xx. 11,13,21.; Rom. x. 5. J Gal. iii. 12. Cow ant of Works. 8$ place, — the mora! law doth always retain its Cove- hant-fcrm, as what it cannot poflibly be diverted of, in every natural itate of it ; or, in all thofe appre- henfions of it which are natural to the hearts of men, — and as it lies in any (late of externa! difpen^ fa i ion : It never is nor can be diverted of its Cove- nant form, but unto true believers in Chriit ; who are blefled with a fupernaturr.l writing of it in ano- ther form upon their hearts, as they are brought to a dependence upon his fulfilling of it for them in its Covenant- form. idly, In difpen r ng the moral law from Sinai, the Lord was not renewing the Covenant of Works with Ifrael. It was not capable of renovation, as it had never been antiquated for one moment. It was ft.il i a commanding and curfing law, upon the whde porterity of the full man in their natural ertate ; without any abatement of that force and vigour which it came to have upon himfelf, in the mor ment of his fall : So that the people of Ifrael were naturally in a Itate of actual fubjeclion to its carfe; not only as breakers of it in their firlt Covenant- head, but as likewife chargeable with manifold breaches of it in their own perfons. And a fuppofition of God's renewing * the Cove- nant of Works with them at Sinai, would imply fome very monltrous abfurdities :— That God had m * The renewing of a covenant, in the general fenfe of that phrafe, means the reviving and applying of a former engagement. But there could have been no peculiarity, in God's renewing the Covenant of Works with Ifrael at Sinai, — according to the^- ncral fenfe of the phrafe ; as it could mean no more than the work of conviction, which finners are It ill brought under by the law: For what thing* fcever the lanv faith, it faith to thevi nxiho are un- der the laiu ; that every month may be flopped, and all the naorld may become guilty before God. A fuppofition, therefore, of Gotl'l renewing the Covenant of Works with Ifrael at Sinai, in any peculiar manner, — could only mean a laying afide the old itate f and fetting up a new ftate of that Covenant. 86 ^ View c/ the firft abfolved them from the original curfe of the Covenant of Works, and all its original obligation upon them; to pave the way for their entering into it with him of new, as upon terms of mutual and abfolute friendfhip : That the law, upon this fu- perfeding of all its former claims, was then defign- ed for giving eternal life to them ; upon condition of their future and perfect conformity to it: And that God did hold this Co\enant-dealing with that linful people, abfolutely incapable of compliance with it ; even when declaring them at the fame time, over and qver, to be an unrighteous, — a rebellious and fliff-ne eked people *. The truth of the cafe is, — -that the Covenant-law was given to them from Sinai, in a very lingular manner ; with peculiar and molt tremendous circum- ftances : But, as to the nature of that difpenfation of the law, it was the very fame which ftill takes place, in the fcriptural date of it, — with regard to all the members of the viable Church, while only bearing that character. 3^/v, The people of Ifrael, at Sinai, were under an administration of the Covenant of Grace, — The adminiftration which had been made of it to Abra- ham, for himfelf and his feed, was dill in force con- cerning them; no way made of none effect, by the law now difpenfed unto them f . The paflbver had been instituted about three months before ; in vir- tue whereof, he that defrayed the firfi-born in E- gypt did not touch them: By which they were di- rected to a dependence, for everlafting falvation, upon the promifed feed of the woman, as their pajf- cver to be facrificed for them ; according to the Cove- nant of Grace J. And in the preface to the ten commandments, the Lord exprefsly revealed him*. felf * Exod. Xxxii. 9. ; xxxtii. 5, 6. ; xxxiv. 9.; Deut. ix. 5, 6, 7. •\ Gal. iii. 17. J Exod. xii. ; 1 Cor. v. 7. Covenant of Works. 8j felf to them as their God and Redeemer * ; which he was, only according to the Covenant of Grace. And the moral law was then accompanied, even incor- porated with a fyftem of ceremonial and typical or- dinances ; particularly of facrifices, typifying the great atonement to made for fin by the death of Chrift: All which ordinances were full ofgofpelto them, according to the Covenant of Grace. And the Lord promifed unto them upon the matter, what was more exprefsly promifed afterwards ; even that fupernatural writing of the law on their hearts, in which it was to be divefted of its Covenant-form to them, — remaining only as a rule of life for their fanctification, while justified in the way of the Co- venant of Grace f . 4tbty, Ifrael was formed, at Sinai, into a peculiar people; as both a church and nation, diltincl from all other people: And God renewed with them his Covenant for them with their fathers, concerning their poifeiTion of the earthly Canaan. This poffef- fion was to be held, according to his promife ; through their maintaining, in that land, the whole fyftem of his worfhip and laws, — in the ceremonial, and typical, and judicial ordinances which he efta- blifhed among them J. But in that peculiar Cove-* nam, there was an adminiftration to them of the Covenant of Grace : As it referred typically to the heavenly Canaan ; the poflefTion of which, accord- ing to other typical ordinances, was to be enjoyed upon the great condition to be fulfilled by the un- dertaking Surety of that Covenant. $thly y The people of Ifrael did greatly mi/lake and mi/behave, with regard to the whole difpenfatiort which they were then brought under .— -The law, the Covenant-law, was added, becaufe of tranfgref* fmj * Exod. xx. 2. f Deut. xxx. 6. ; Jsr. xxxi. 33* J Exod. xxxiv. io, — 27. ; Levit. xxyi. 83 A View of the /ton ; it entered^ that the offence might abound* ; That the offence, in the tranfgreffions of that law, plight abound more than ever before, — in the knowledge and acknowledgment thereof. That law was there- fore given to them, for ferving the fame purpofe which it doth ftill ; as by law is the knowledge of Jin f. It was to ferve for discovering to them th eir natural ruin, their miferable and perifhing condition undrr the broken Covenant of Works \ and for (hutting them up to a dependence upon the remedy, fet forth to them, in that administration of the Cove- nant of Grace which they were then likewife blc^i with. Their proper bufinefs with the Covenant iaw, was therefore j nit the fame as that of finners ftill; while the fame law is Itill difpehfed for conviction, in a fubferviency to the gofpel. But the body of that people, without any pro-* per infight into the myftery of the Covenant of Grace, as then adminiftered to them, — did under- take, moll ignoran,tly and vainly, to fulfil the mo- ral law in its Covenant-form j ; inftead of taking up their dependence upon the real and abfolute ful- filling of it by the great Mediator, which was fet forth to their faith by the inltituted facrifiees. And fo, the ci r e was then the fame with them as after- wards; that I/rae'y which followed after the law of tight epufnefsy hath not attained to the law of righle- oufnefs : Wherefore? becaufe they fought it not by faith, but as it Wi re by the works of the law ||. Upon the publication which was made of the iaw to them, they faid, — all that the Lord hath faid we •will do, and be obedient : And the Lord anfwered, — they have well faid, all that they have fpoken ; he could not but approve of what they faid, as to the matter of it, even a full conformity to his law. But he * Gal. iit\ 19.; Rom. v. 20. + Rom. iii. 20. \ Exod. xxiv. 4, 7. || Rom. ix. 31, 32. Covenant of Works. 83 he immediately added, that there wasfuch an heart in them * ! And lb, though their words were good, their heart was not right with him: They were but going about to eita: lift} their owp righteouinefs. The law, as dilpenfed from Sinai, was or iained by an?eU in the hand of a Mediator \. L was then ordained through a ministry of angels, in the tre- mendous circumftances of that difpenfation. If the Mediator in whofe hand it was ordained be under- wood of Mofes, though he is not fo called any where elfe in Scripture ; and who was a mediator but in a very partial fenfe, as an intervening meflenger betwixt God and the people : Yet he was to be confidered as typica 1 of Jisus Chrtst, the one, complete, and effectual Mediator of the New Covenant. It HE therefore was not immediately, he was ultima ely meant, as the Meiiator'm whofe hand the lav was ordained. He who artenvards afcended on h^h. and receive! gifts for men, — was among rhem in Sinai, with thou* fan Is of angels \ : S > that they had the law diipenfed to them in the hand o f this glorious Mediator. Nojj (as immediately fallows the fir 1 quotation in th ; s paragraph), a mediator is not a meJiaror of one ; but God is one : A mediator can onty be between pirties at variance. In the prefent ca'e, G J is mention. 1 as one party ; and, feeing a mediator is fpoken of, another party muft be underilood. The peop'e of I rael were the other party ; to w'lom the law was difpenfed in the hand of th.it Mediator, the one blefling Seed promifed to Abraham || They ha I therefore to confider him as the great M.d'anr be- tween God and them : And to take t e law a> in his hand ; as a law to be fulfilled by him for his people in its Covenant-form, even to an undergo- ing all the penalty of it for than. But, initead K of * Exod. xxiv. 7.; Deut. v. 27, 29. 29. f Gal. Hi, 19. % Pial. lxviii. 17, 18. || oeu. xxii. 18. go A View of the of this, they themfelves vainly undertook to fulfil it % going about to edabufh their own rigQteouaiefs. § VI. There is a covenant of men's making with God: And that either conjunctly or feparaiely^ public or private. i/l, There is a public covenant made with God ; by a number of perfons conjunctly, in a Church- date : Which, in the nature of it, is no more than an explicit and formal fclemnity of their Chridian pro- feffion, on particular occafions ; in /wearing it t& ihe Lord of hojh. It is eflential to the character of Chridians, in a Church-date, — that they make a profeffion of their faith in Chrift, and obedience to him : Which pro- fefTion, if properly made by them, muft carry in it a dated oppoftion to the errors and wicked- nefs of the time in which they live. And the fin-* gular prevalence of thefe evili, in fome periods, re- quires that peculiar folemnity of the Chriftian pro- felTion. There are manifold examples, precepts, and promifes in Scriptute, warranting and requir- ing fuch public covenanting,— both under the Old and New Tedaments; a particular confederation of which belongs not to the prefent defign. It may be enough here that a reference be made to the practice of the Jewifli Church in the days of Nehe- vxiah : When upon a day of folemn fading, no way by Mofaicyl or legal inditution, — and fo not as a Jewifh Church, but fimply as a church ; after an Acknowledgment of public fins, they faid, — and becaufs of all this, we make a fire covenant *. Such a covenant no way interferes with the Co- venant of Grace ; as it means not a laying any new ground of dependence and expectation before God : It * Nehem. ix. 38, Covenant of Works. 91 It only means a folemn avouching of the Lord and engagement to him, upon the ground of his Cove- nant of Grace. And fo, it is altogether different from the Covenant of Works : As the engagement unto, and performance of duties, is not anv condi- tion of obtaining life from God ; but is a ccnfjquei ce of embracing the gift of life in the Covenant of (irace, and ofdetendence on the promiles of that Covenant. Salvation, as all of grace, no way fuper- fedes, — but mightily enforces the ob igations of ho- mage to God, in all Chrittian duties. 2d/y, There is a private covenant made with God, by individual pert'ons ieparately ; what is called per- fonal covenanting : And it may be done, by taking held of God's Covenant of Grace and vowing uni- versal obedience to him, — in a written and fub- fcribed deed. Nor doth this mean any more, than a formal expreflion of that engagement to God, in a dependence upon his Covenant of Grace, — which belongs to the exercife of faving faith. Yet there is a reafon to apprehend, — that this way of perfonal covenanting is often, if not moftly mil- managed: And various forms of fuch a perfonal co- venant have been propofed by different writers, of a tendency to miflead Chriftians,— as to their method of dealing with God about their fouls. If the perfonal covenanting be fet about,, in the caie of a troubled confcience, as a mean of getting it pacified, under an apprehenfion of peace and ac- ceptance with God, — yea, as a mean of obtaining a faving intereft in Chrift: Let this be done in ever fo evangelic like a manner, it is but fome fort of an at- tempt to repair the breach of the Covenant of Works ; a going about, however fpecioufly, to eftablifh the perfon's own righteoufnefs, — a feeking rightcquf- nefs, as it were by the works of the law 7 . For ftill, the perion will have fome refpecl to his own Cove- nantj 02 A View of the nant, and his felt attainment as to proper exercife in inal nig it ; as the immediate ground of that fettie- riieM which hit ioui is brought into, about his lav. in g interett in God's Covenant of Gra:e. Then only is perional covenanting rightly managed, when a perfon is thereby devoting him'elf to the Lord as his God : With his conscience purged from guilt and pacified, by faith's application of the blood of Chriif; 1 lis foul at reif in God, according to the New Co- venant, about all his fpirituai and everlaftirig Con- cerns; and his heart under a fweet constraint of Chriit's believed love to him ; — with a fire of love and gratitude in his heart to Chriii, taking effect in a gracious engagement for living unto him. And perhaps, for guarding againlr. every Old Covenant way of it. — peifon. 1 covenanting may be more pro- perly reduced to pourings out of the heart befoie God in prayer. § VII. There is a covenant of mens making among themselves ; as that betwixt Abraham and Abimelecb*. And this was a covenant according to the drifted fenfe of the word: In which both parties were of the Tame nature, and mutually independent of each o- ther ; the party to whom the covenant was propofed being at liberty to chufe, or refuse it. But the cale was extremely different, as to the Co^ veriatit of Works : In which the parties were of natures infinitely diiiinct ; and the man was in a ltate of ab- folute dependence on God, at no Lberty to chufe or refufe his part of the Covenant. Yet this was every way confident with the general nature of a covenant; as it means a promife to be fulfilled, upon a con- dition to be performed : Seeing the man's confent was efientially implied in his primitive integrity; both as to the condition required, and the promife made. * Gen. xxi. 27, 32. Covenant of Works. 93 fnade. That integrity could not admit of any choice, \ her or not he fhotild obey his "Iord Creator; and as little, whether or not he mould embr: ce the promifed continuance and advarcjment of his hap- pinefs; Ail luch freedom of choice being anticipat- ed, by a conient which neceffarily belonged to the uprigjitnefs of his nature. SECT. III. Cf the Propriety of God's Covenant-dealing with the frrjl Man, as a public Perfin. All God's ways of dealing are proper, becaufe they are his ways. Whatever he doth is proper, be- cause he doth it ; and whatever he wills is proper, becaufe he wills it: For he is a God of truth, and without iniquity; yifi arid right is be*. But a pro- priety of his Covenant-dealing with the fir ft: man, and even as a publ.c perfon, may be iikewife Ou- ferved in the very nature of it. As, § I. Man's primitive eftate was not, yea could not be defigned for his ultimate eftate. — He had the life of an immaterial and immortal foul, to endure for ever : But he had Iikewife an animal life; which could not, in its nature, admit of eternal duration. It would be abfurd to fuppofe an eternity of eating and drinking, wich other carnal exercifes belonging to that kind of life ; and an eternity of annual pro- ductions from the earth, for ferving thole purpofes. Some continuance of fuch a life, with him and his pofterity, was indeed necellary for the production of all the human kind. But, according to thatconfti- tution of which God was freely pleafed to make him, it was no lefs necellary that this way of life mould * Deut. xxxii. 4. 94 A View of the (hould at length come to a period : That he mould be advanced to an immediate enjoyment of God for ever, without any further intervention of thofe car- nal exe^ciies which belonged to his animal life. Yet his profpecl of this advancement, which was even a natural profpec>, could only be through a courfe of perfect obediei.ee to the divine will, ac- cording to the law of his creation; while God mould be rJeafed to continue him in a frate of trial, before bringing him into a Hate of confirmation. But, by his having fuch a profpecl upon that condition, the law of his creation was reai.y a Covenant of Works, And, § II. God did not fee meet to prodv.ee all man- kind at once, as he did the myiiads of angels: But they were to be brought into being, through a courfe of fucceflive generations ; and the hrft man was to be the natural root of the whole. I was therefore mod proper,-— that God's lettiement with him, a- bout his eternal Hate, mould include all his natural pofterity ; as being all in his lorns. That God {hould have gone through a courfe of fuch fetilements diftin&ly, with each of thofe in their generations, making a new Covenant of Works with each, — could not confift with any apprehenfions which we can have of the divine wifdom; as not confiding with their (tate of propagation from the fir ft man. And therefore it was mod pioper, that their natural root mould be alfo their reprefenting head in the Covenant of Works, § III. Suppofmg that all the individuals of man- kind could have been brought fucceflively into being without origin. 1 fin ; and that God had been to deal with thzmfeverally (as with angels), from their not be- ing united in any Covenant-flate : It is not however fuppoieable, Covenant of Works. 9$ ftlppofeable, that he could defign to leave the whole human kind, more than the who'e angelic kind, to fall into and perifh in a (late of fin and mifery, nor to uphold them from doing fo, more than a 1 the angels. Thus, there Would have come to be a ftic- ceflion of one fort of human perfons abfoluteiy Jinlefs, and another fort of human perfons abfoluteiy finful,-— all on the fame earth, through a courfe of ages: Per- fons vvhofe conditions would have been fo abfoluteiy different and oppofite, as could have admitted of no intermixture in human fociety ; no cohabitation in one world, though there was but one in which they c ^uld be propagated ! It was therefore mod proper, that the world mould have been as it a&ua.ly is; through the connection of ail mankind with the firft man as their Covenant head. And this actual (late of mankind, as having all finned and fallen, by one common ruin, in the breach of one Covenant, — is what God has order- ed for the glory of his abfolute fovereignty, as alfo of his infinite grace and wifdom; in a fubfervience to the myfterious recovery of fome, by one common falvation, upon the ground of another Covenant: While the difference betwixt faints and finners, in the prefent ftate of the world, is not abfolute or perfect; fo as to exclude their affociations, in do- meftic and civil fellowfbip. G H A P. 96 A View of the CHAPTER III. Of the Covenant of Works in its natural State. § I. f^OD made man upright ; in a (late of perfecl VjT opposition to all thole fmful inventions which he afterwards fought out *. God created Than in his own image ; in knowledge, righteoufnefs^ and true hohnefs\. The man was therefore endued, in his creation, with a knowledge of God's will, according to all the extent of the moral law ; and in a (late of perfect iLclination towards a compliance with it. This law was natural to him ; it was an ingredient of his upright nature, it was written in his heart, it was interwoven with all the powers of his foul. His reafon fully dictated this law to him ; his confeience fully ratified it ; his will did wholly embrace it; and all his affeclions were in a perfect conformity to it.— Such was the original ftate of the moral law, as perfectly impreiTed on human nature. And of this natural impreflion, there are flill fome remains on every foul ; fo that the Gentiles do by nature the things contained in the law, — which jhew the work of the law written in their hearts J. § II. Man was laid under the moral law in his creation, not limply as a law ; colliding only of precepts, with a penalty. In this fimple Itate, it was never imprefTed upon him, or any way difpenled to him, for one moment. It was originally in him as a Covenant-law, a Covenant of Works. This Cove- nant was, immediately after his creation, bi ought into a very new itate j by God's bringing him to the * Eccl. v!I. 29. f Gen. i, 27 j Col. ui. 10. ; Eph. iv. 24. % Rom. !i. 14, 1^, Covenant of Works. 97 the left: of a pofitive precept : But it was not in this tranfaction, that the moral law became vefted with a Covenant-form. It was in man originally, as a Jaw which could have given life ; carrying in it this notification about the works of it, the man that doth tbemfhall live in them * : And fo, it had a promife as well as a penalty; making it a Covenant f. Accordingly, the moral law, in the remaining impremon of it on human nature,— doth flill exhi- bit eternal life according to that Covenant, as to be obtained by the deeds of the law : And our Lord fuftained trie truth of this natural dictate concerning it, when he faid, — if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments J. And that the Covenant of Works was a natural Covenant to the firft man, an ingredient of his na- ture, — is demonftratively evident from the natural flate of every man's heart. There is, in all, a na- tural marriage and attachment to the law as a Cove- nant, for obtaining eternal life by their obedience to it. But no fuch thing could be natural to any heart, — no fuch thing as legality, or legal bias to- ward a doing for life, in oppofition to a believing on Chrift for life; were not the Covenant of Works fuch a natural Covenant as hath been declared. § III. The Covenant of Works, confidered in its natural ftate, was not made with the firft man as a public perfon. He was conftituted as the Covenant- head of all his natural pofterity, by a pofitive dif- penfation which God brought him under immedi- L ateiy * Gal. ili. 12, 21. i- There was never any iaw given, which could give life to /»/5//man: But fuch was the law given to innocent man ; having become iveak for that purpofe onjy through ih$ flcsh % the corrup- tion of his nature, Row. viii. 3. % Matth. xix. 1 6, 17. - ; qH A View of the ately after he Was created ; fo that this public ftate of the Covenant of Works was not natural to him : It was not a natural dictate of his reafon and con- fcience; but wholly founded in that pofitive difpen- fation. He was naturally under the Covenant of Works in a private, lfate, only for himfelf : As his being the natural root of his pofterity could not necejfarlly infer, that he mould be alfo their Cove- nant-head. — Accordingly, he fell from his public character of Covenant-headfhip, by breaking the po- fitive precept: Whereas, if that character had been natural to him, or had belonged to the natural (late of the Covenant of Works ; he could not have fal- len from if, but by an entire deftruction of the Co- venant-law in his heart, — even a deftruction of his rational nature. The natural imprellion of that law on his heart, could not dictate his being thereby in any public ftation ; more than the remains of it in each of its pofterity, can dictate their being feveral- ly in any fuch condition. § IV. The fir ft man was endued with a fufficient capacity, for fulfilling the righteoufnefs of that Co- venant-law under which he was made. There was no defect in his knowledge of it ; and no defect in his inclination toward it, nor any contrary principle in his nature: So that he had a fufficient capacity of foul, for maintaining a courfe of perfect; obedience to this law ; while he had a fufficient capacity of body, for all external actions belonging to that obe- dience. He was then in a full capacity for all the moral exercifes of a fpiritual life ; fuch as healthy and vigorous men are Mill in, for all the natural ex- ercifes of their animal life, — according to their pleafure. § V. This fufficient capacity which man was en- dued Covenant of Works. 99 clued with, as a habit of his foul, was not fufHcient for an aclual maintaining of his integrity : He more- over needed a continual and unremitted influence of divine power on his foul, for carrying out the habit into exercife 9 as to every particular act of obe- dience. This arifes from the necefTary, abfolute, and im- mediate dependence of all things on God. He is above ally and through ally and in all : He giveih (continually giveth) to all life 9 and breath, and all things : For in him we live and move 9 and have our being *. As no creature hath a felf-exiflcnce 9 fo no creature hath a felffivfficiency for even one moment's prefervation of its exigence; nor even for the draw- ing of one breath, or the performing of any one motion,-— as of itfelf. God's enduing of creatures with habits, leaves them frill under a neceiTity of the continual and immediate influence of his power, for an actual exercife of thefe habits, So it is, in all the concerns of human life. As we cannot for a moment be of ourfelves, we cannot for a moment aft of ourfelves 5 or other wife than as continually fubfifting in God, and confiding by him f. We are in a continual dependence every moment upon the God who made us, for maintain- ing us both in being and acting. And to entertain any different apprehenfions of God, is, upon the matter, to exclude him from his own world; from his continual preferving and governing of all his creatures, and all their actions : As if, upon endu- ing them with habits, he had only to behold how they will exercife the fame ; without any need of his influence upon them for doing fo, or without any dependence on him in their actings. The Su- preme Being mud frill be the firft caufe, and an immediate * Eph. iv. 6. ; Aas xvii. 25, 28. f Col. i. 17. j oo A View of the immediate caufe, of all effects in the world which he made and upholds, — as of him, and through him, and to hi,m, are all things * ; yet without being the author of creature-evil, about the moral circum- ftances of thefe effects. But this divine influence upon the actual exercife of a good habit, is wholly a matter of God's fbve- reign pleafure. He cannot withdraw tfye good ha- bit once beftowed, without fome provocation by the creature for doing fo ; as this coali not confift with his own unchangeable goodnefs : But he can fuperfede or fufpend that immediate influence, for carrying out the habit into proper exercife, — ac- cording to his abfolute fovereignty. Anany years, for ages, in a ftate of continual jeopardy, — without one moment's refpite from the danger of falling. CHAP- Xo2 A View of the CHAPTER IV. Of the Covenant of Works in its pofltive State. § J- r | 1 HE Covenant of Works was not left with X the firfl man in its natural flate, but was brought into a pofitive flate; by the difpenfation of a pofitive law, about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. As hath been formerly confidered *, — his fulfilling of that pofitive law was made, to him, the immediate condition of the Covenant of Works. The whole concerns of his life and death were brought to turn immediately upon the hinge of his not eating or eating of the fruit of that tree. The determination expreffed to him, in the day that thou eateft thereof thou fhalt furcly die, — could not be un- derflood by him, but as meaning an affurance of that being the cafe, § II. The Covenant of Works was very quickly turned into that pofitive flate unto the firfl man. It was on the very day of his creation : And the pofi- tive law appears to have been given to him, fo foon as he was formed into the flate of a rational agent. There is no reafon, as it doth not feem confident with an uniformity of God's precedure concerning him, — to fuppofe that, when fo formed, he was for one moment in a private Jlation, under the Covenant of Works as merely a natural Covenant; or could have his firfl obedience to perform under it in that character : But his very firfl outfetting in an active obedience to his LoRD-Creator, was to be in main- taining a regard unto the pofitive law then given to him. § HI. * Chap. I. Sea. III. § V, VI. Covenant of Works. 103 § III. By this pofitive law, or the fpecial form which the Covenant of Works was thus brought in- to ; the firft man was put into the ftate of a public per/on, a Covenant-head of all his natural pofterity. It is evident that God's dealing with him, on that occafion, was a dealing with mankind in him * ; as being all reprefented by him, not naturally, but in that pofitive ftate of the Covenant of Works. Ac- cordingly, bis finning came to be their finning in him; by his dtfobedience they were madefinners 9 and in him they died f . But this was peculiar to his fr/lfn, of eating the forbidden fruit : This being the only fin which he was liable to a committing of as his firji fin; and in the committing of which he fell from his Co- venant-headfhip, while it was the only fin commit- table by him in that capacity. § IV. This pofitive ftate of the Covenant cf Works, is wholly a matter of revelation. The firft man had not, nor could have any natural apprehen- fion of it, — or of any evil, in eating the fruit which was forbidden : Becaufe the evil of doing fo had no reafon for it in the nature of the thing, but only in the mere good pleafure of God ; which he could not know but by a revelation of it to him, when he was created. And this revelation was exprefsly made to him fo foon as his underftanding was formed for receiving it. — Nor could we have any notion of this whole matter, otherwife than by a revelation which is made of it to us. The Covenant of Works > ac- cording to its natural ftate, has a place in the natu- ral dictates of reafon and confeience : But the pofi- tive ftate of it, in God's dealing with the firft man, is wholly a matter of divine teflimony in the Scrip-* tures. §v, * Chap. I. Se«. II. j VI. f Chap. II. Sea. I. J II. io4 A View of the § V. God's bringing the Covenant of Works in- to that pofitive and revealed ftate, was a moft favour- able difpenfation; containing a very eminent dif- play of his singular goodness. For, l/?, By the pofitive (late of the Covenant of Works with the fir ft man, there was a mod favourable a- bridgment of his natural fallibility \ As hath been ob- served, this fallibility was at large, according to the whole extent of the moral law. He Was in a ftate of very hazardous liablenefs to fuccefsful temptation, as to every duty, — and every where, and every moment ; fo long as he fhould not be brought into a ftate of confirmation. But, by the aforefaid po- fitive difpenfation, his fallibility was confined > at firft inftance, to the (ingle point of his behaviour about the forbidden fruit. The alTurance given him, that in eating he (hould die^ — could mean nothing lefs, than that in not eating he (hould not die: That all his hazard of dying was confined immediately, to his eating ; and fo, that all his hazard of finning was likewife confined, immediately, to the committing of that fin. Thus, he was brought into a conditional ftate of confirmation^ with regard to the whole moral law. He was not in any hazard of being fuccefsfuliy tempted to any breach of it, but in and through a breaking of the pofitive precept; while, in breaking of this, he would become a breaker of that whole law. And fo, upon condition of his not breaking the pofitive precept, and the moral law in it, — -he was confirmed againft any immediate breach of this law ; that, however much he could be tempted to tranfgrefs a- ny article of it, the temptation could not be fuccefs- ful : God being gracioufly engaged by the pofitive difpenfation, in the very nature of it, — never to fuf- pend the divine influence through which he would aclually Covenant ^ Works, 105 actually ftand as to all moral duties ; fo long as he ihoiild not fall, by eating the forbidden fruit. And the confining of his hazard immediately to that point, was particularly favourable ; as he muft thus have always feen where, and where only his hazard did lie : And that he was in no hazard ot death, through a being fuccefsfully tempted to ai j fin, fo long as he mould keep clear of the forbidden fruit. It was likewife particularly favourable., — that the tefl which he was thus brought under of abfolute fubmifTion to the mere will of God, was the eajlefi imaginable : An abftaining from the fruit of a parti- cular tree, which had no particular excellency in it; and which he could never find the fmalleft need of, being otherwiie moll; abundantly fupplied by many trees in the garden. 2d/y, By the pofitive ftate of the Covenant of Works with the fir ft man, there was a mod favour- able confinement of human fallibility — immediately to himfelf. As he was the Covenant-head of all his natural pofterity, their (landing or falling was to be immediately in him. In his falling, all of them fell ; and if he had flood, all of them would have ftood alfo. It is grofsly abfurd, as abfolutely inconfiftent with his Covenant-reprefentation, — to imagine that any of them could have been left to fall, but in and through his falling ; or that any of them could have been left to a finning for themfelves, without firft finning in him. Had he ftood out, in fulfilling the righteoufnefs of the Covenant which he was under, and which they were under in him ; had he fo ftood till he had been brought into a ftate of confirmation, the condition of that Covenant being fulfilled : All his pofterity muft have been confirmed in and through him, ac- cording to the efTential nature of the Covenant; they having to (land in a ftate of confirmation, upon the M fulfilled io6 A View of the fulfilled condition of his Covenant-righteoufnefs,, They would have been as much obliged as ever he was, to maintain a perfect conformity to the moral law^ (the law of the pofitive precept, in the cafe fuppofed, being come to an end) ; and would have as perfectly done fo: Yet not a conformity to it as a Covenant- law, but only as a rule of righteoufnefs. For their flanding in a ftate of confirmation, as ac- tually and abfolutely entitled to eternal life, would have been (till upon the ground of the fulfilled con- dition of the Covenant in his public righteoufnefs ; not on that of any perfonal righteoufnefs of their own, which could not have come in for any fhare in the condition of that Covenant. — ^nd fo, the cafe would have been parallel to what actually takes place in the New Covenant ; with regard to the glorious Head of this Covenant, and his fpiritual feed. 2)dly, By the pofitive ftate of the Covenant of Works with the firft man, his ftate of trial was de- termined to an early conclufion. The angels were at fir it in a ftate of trial. But this was for a very fhort time, — for a few days at mod ; many of them having fallen before the fixth day of the creation was over, though they appear to have been created but on the fecond # : Immediately upon which, all the reft were put into a ftate of confirmation. And it is not reafonable to fuppofe, that God could defign to deal more feverely with the firft man ; by conti- nuing him, for any long time, in his ftate of trial. Moreover, from the nature of that difpenfation which he was under, — his ftate of trial muft have been over, fo foon as he could have no further con- cern with the tree of the knowledge of good and e- vil. And this might have been different ways: By God's being pleafed to difpofe of him at a diftance from * Pfal. civ, 4. Covenant of Works. 107 from it ; or to blaft it, as he once did a fig tree, caufing it to become barren. Befides, according to the nature of that difpen- fation which he was under, — man's flate of trial was to have been over, before he could have any off- fpring. For the entry of fin into the world, through a breach of the Covenant of Works, could not have been by any of them at fir ft inftance; but only by him with whom that Covenant was made : And none of them could be in a ftate of confirmation, while he continued in a ftate of trial : And it could not have confided with any revealed meafures of the divine equity, that they^ continuing upright, mould have been left to an uncertain dependence on his doing fo ; or to have perifhed, in a ftate of perfonal inno- cence, by his fault, — when they were come to act for themfelves. From fuch confiderations it appears, that, in the nature of the cafe, his ftate of trial was then determined to an early conclufion, CHAPTER V. Of the Breach of the Covenant of Works. AN account of that moft important and difmai event, is given in the third chapter of Genefis* It is not propofed here, to explain all the particulars of that account. Much lefs is it propofed, to med- dle in fome curious queftions which have been ftarted ; about the particular kind of ferpent there mention- ed, with the character given of it, — as alfo, about its original form and pofture : And about how the woman could be impofed upon (while innocence could io8 A View of the could not admit of her being terrified), by the un- natural novelty of a ferpenr's fpeaking. It becomes us to scquieice in the divine teitirnony, of what was then ih. itate of matters; without dealing in vain, enquiries, about how it could be fo. And the fol- lowing- things are fubmkted to confideration. 5 I. The breach of the Covenant of Works was very tarty Immediately upon its being made with the ;v/77,7, the woman was formed out of him: And this wits on the hxth day of the creation ; that very day, inhle and female created he them*. After the divine eflabiifliment with them, as the Covenant was made with both, — there is no inftance recorded of any morai acting on their part, before the breach of the Covenant; this appears to have been the very firft ftep of their actual dealing with God as their Sovereign Lord. The Pfalmift makes an obfervation; man in honour abideth noi\. Thefe words tranilated abideth not, ftrictly mean nighteih not, — paffeth not a night: which is not literally true of men, as to their common (late of earthly honour ; denoting only a very uncertain aid fhort continuance in it. But there leems to be no reafon, why thefe words may not be considered as alluding to the condition of the firft man, — in their ftri&eft fenfe; of his not pafling a night, or getting over to the firft Sabbath, in the honour of his innocent (late. And it feems too much for us, to affirm an impoffibility, — that all thefe tranfaclions concerning him could have patted in one day: More than others concerning our Lord, in as fhort a.time before his burial. § II. The breach of the Covenant of Works was by eating the forbidden fruit. This was a mod wo- ful * Gen. i. 27. f Pfal. xlix. 12. Covenant of Works. 109 ful abolifhing of that Covenant, in its pofitivc Jlale ; which immediately ceafed to be of any more exig- ence. And the particular breach of it in its pofi- tive ftate, comprehended an univerfal breach of it in its natural Jlate alfo # . By that eating there was a direct trampling upon God's authority in the pc- Jitive law; a total rejection of his abfolute fovereign- ty : And fo, it was a material breach of the moral law in all its articles, as all eftablifhed by the fame authority. It meant the reverie of all that love, which is the fulfilling of the law •, the man thus act- ing in enmity againft God, againfl himfelf, and a- gainit his whole poflerity. And this was the mod atrocious, the moil ag- gravated fin which ever has been, or could have been committed in this world : Confidering the dread- ful extent of it, as the fin of human nature, of all mankind in the firft man ; and its being the fountain of all other fin ; and as committed by innocent man, — in whom Satan had no part, when coming to him as a tempter; and as committed upon a temptation of the very flighted nature, for renouncing his abfo- lute fubje&ion unto and dependence upon God. § III. The eating of the forbidden fruit was the effect, of a temptation. The devil or Satan, the prince of devils, was the tempter f . But he was fo, as permitted to take poffeilion of and infpire a material ferpeni ; whom he employed in fpeaking. Satan chafed this inftrument, as more fubtile than any beafi of the field: not as if the natural fubtilty of the fer- pent could have properly aided him ; but he liked an inftrument congenial to himfelf, of cunning an- fwerable to his own, — fo far as material and fpiritual qualities can bear a rcl. i'.lirice. He knew that the woman * Chap. I. Sea. III. § IV. f R — *"• 9- > J°*" *«■ 44- no A View of the woman could not be affrighted, while he fuppofed that ihe might be deceived. She thus became fub- jccted to the wiles of the devil; while he knew that his fiery darts could not take effect. — And it is very remarkable, that Satan preferved a fpecial regard to the inftrument of his firit and fuccefsful temptation; as he got Tome Gentile nations, afterwards, to wor~ fhip him under the form of a ferpent. § VI. The eating of the forbidden fruit was zfoul- yfo^as well as a body-fin. The eating was a bodily a&ion ; and no fin can lie fimply in any act of the body, — or other wife than as partaking with, and ferving the foul in that fin. Accordingly, the temp- tation took its primary effect upon the foul. Sa- tan's firft attempt was to (hake the woman's faith as to the truth of the precept -, or of God's having forbidden her to eat of the fruit which the ferpent referred to : While fhe had been fufficiently inftrucT:- ed in the knowledge of that pofitive law which God had given to the man before her formation ; and of its equally reflri&ing both him and her, from an eating of that fruit. But the devil having failed in his firft attempt, he made his next attempt upon her faith of the penalty ; and in this he fucceeded. He thus got her brought by the way of inconfideratenefs, into a a ftate of unbelief. So it was, that the ferpent beguiled Eve through his fubtilty * : Beguiling her through her unbelief, into a contempt of God's faithfulnefs and power with regard to the execution of the pe- nalty, upon the precept being broken; yea into a monftrous pride, — as to rifmg up, after this manner, into a ftate of independency on God. And it is ftill common with men, though admitting the truth of precepts, to make of all dread from threatenings; promifing upon new advantages in their finful courfe. — Thus * 2 Cor. xi. 3. Covenant of Works. hi — Thus it was, that fin getting pofleffion of the foul, took effed in the eating of the forbidden fruit. § V; The eating of the forbidden fruit was one fin. It was a complicated fin ; as the outward a&ion was the confequence of an inward apoftafy from, and oppofition to God. Yet all this is exprefsly fet forth as one fin * : All one fin; conceived in the foul, fo as to be brought forth and finifhed by and in the body. According to the terms of the pofitive law, it could not be broken but in the eating ; while this eating could not fail to become the refult of the con- ception of fin in the foul, on the bringing forth of which all became one finifhed fin. But as the fin was one in its nature; it was like- wife one, according to God's conftitution, as to the Parties finning. There were now, indeed, two dif- tinft intelligent parties* concurring diftin&ly in the fin ; and the one at fome diflance of time from the other: For Adam was not deceived (in the fame man- ner as the woman was); but the woman being deceived, was in the tranfgreffion f. Yet thefe two parties , by a moft lingular and un- paralleled conflitution, were made but one party be- fore God ; or in the conflruclion of the pofitive law. They were qonftituted into a ftate of Co\znint~ iden- tity, famenefs or onenefs, as to this whole matter. — The woman was confidered as in the man, when God created him j : And all that God faid to the man, when laying him under the pofitive law, he faid to the woman as then in him. And after her diftincl: formation, yea after he and fhe were in the tranfgreffion ; God flill fpake of them both as one, calling them both the man ||. The cafe was therefore fo conftituted, that the pofitive law could not be broken by * Rom. v. 12, 16,-19, t l Ttouih 14* t Gen. i. 27- {[ Gen. iii. 22, 24. H2 A View of the by the man, but in the way of his compliance wiih the woman; and it could not be broken by the woman, but fo as the man was to concur with her in breaking it. It was in this co-operation of both, that the fin came to be finifhed ; as they were both one Covenant-head. And they could not be feparated in finning,— -more than a man's foul and body can be now, in the committing of an ac- tual fin. They were as much one, in the pofitive flate of the Covenant of Works, as the human foul and body: Difiin&ion of their perfonal exiftences, and of time and place in their actings, — being all as nothing to God, no bar at all in his way, with re- gard to his mod fingular confiitution. — It is there- fore a groundlefs notion, that Eve finned in a pri- vate character for herfelf. And all questions, about a fuppofed cafe and confequence of Adam's not eating the forbidden fruit, when Eve had done fo, are quite vain; yea, moft abfurdly inconfiftent with the whole flate of God's difpenfation concerning them, — fup- pofing an impoffibility. § VI. The eating of the forbidden fruit was a confequence of the man's having been left to the freedom of his own will. He enjoyed a perfect free- dom of will, a freedom for acting according to pleafure ; which is all the freedom that can belong to the will of a rational being : And there was no corrupt bias in his foul, for giving any wrong turn to his pleafure. Thus, according to the habit of his upright nature, he fully could Jland : But that he ac- tually fiould Jland, did necefTarily depend upon a continual influence of divine power upon this good habit, for carrying it out in every exercife thereof; as hath been explained in another place *. And fuch influence, God was pleafed to fufpend ; leaving the v ciiap. 11:. § iv. v. vr. Covenant 0/ Works. 113 the man to a trial of his own pleafure, in that exer- c;ie. As to this matter, the independent Lord proceed- ed in the depth of his abfolute fovereignty. He was not a debtor to his creature, for an actual uphold- ing of him: He favv meet to fet up an awful monu- ment, in this cafe^ of the infinite difference betwixt him and the mod perfect creature ; betwixt his own efiential infallibility^ and that fallibility which necef- farily belongs to finite nature: And he was pleafe cTj in the depth of his manifold wifdom, to order the difmal event of man's fall unto the praife of the glo- ry of his grace, bringing the greatefl good out of the greatefl evil, — according to a New Covenant. How unfearchable are his judgments ■, and his ways pqfi. finding out * / § VIL By the breach of the Covenant of Works, in eating the forbidden fruit, — man did fail into a ftate of aclual fubjeclion to the penalty or curfe of the broken Covenant. This curfe was of no force a- gainft him before his fall ; it only ferved to let him fee the dreadful peril upon which he would eat of that fruit. But now it came to be in actual force: The threatened death did take a prefent effect upon him, toward a further effect in due time ; as former- ly explained f . And in this terrible fubjection to the curfe, all his natural pofterity are comprehend- ed, as all finning in him; according to the Cove- nant which they were under in him, as their repre- fenting head. § VIII. By the breach of the Covenant of Works, in eating the forbidden fruit,— man did fall into a finful condition. The eating was an outward action, but it proceeded from a corruption which his nature N was * Rom. xi. 33. t Chap. I. Sea, IV. ri4 A View of tie was firft infected with,-— unbelief, eontempt and pride, with regard to his Sovereign Lord. Thus, an wound was given to his foul by the temptation ; and a deadly wound, productive of fpiritual death in all his faculties. He immediately loft the image of God, in which he was created. The divine light, which had filled his underftanding, was now juftly withdrawn ; and left it in a ftate of horrible darknefs. From the guilt brought upon his confcience, he juftly apprehended God to have become his enemy; upon which his whole foul was funk into a ftate of alienation from, and enmity againft God. As he had turned from God, in gratifying a fenfual appetite ; his will and affections, his whole foul, fell down from God the original centre thereof: Falling into a new and wicked gravitation towards the creature ; in a ftate of averfion from, and oppofition to his glorious Cre- ator. The mod familiar communication which had fubfifted betwixt God and him was broken up; and the bias of his foul was towards a progreftive depar- ture from God, his chief good. § IX. Immediately upon the breach of the Cove- nant of Works, a difpenfation of the Covenant of Grace was introduced. -Our firft parents, newly fallen into a ftate of fin and mifery, heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden. According to the conftru&ion of the original language, it was not the Lord God walking; but the voice, the Word, the perfonal Word, 'walking. The Lord Chrtst then vifited them; it would feem in an ap- pearance of manhood, which he was afterwards to avTume in rea'ity. And he gave th^m a mod pre- cious promife of himfelf, as the bleiTed and blelTing Seed of the woman ; who was, in due time, to bruife theferpent's head, through his own fuffering inhu- man Covenant 0/ Works. ii£ man nature. Such was the aftonifhing difplay which he then made, of his delights having been with the J oris of men ; even in their moft undelightful con- dition, as forefeen in a (late of fin and mifery. Such was the dawning of the light of grace, which gradually increafed during the Old-teilament ftate ^ till it has come to a meridian glory, in the gofpel- difpeniation. § X. The man (including the woman) was then driven out of the garden, A reafon was given for this ; left he put forth his hand, and take alfo of the tree $f life, and eat, and live for ever, 1 his cannot mean, that his eating of the tree of life could have been of any efFeft for his recovery ; for reftoring him frcm the fpiritual death which he had funk into, and from his fubje&ion to the curfe of the broken Covenant. The words are to be more properly rendered, that he may live for ever ; not fignifying what would have really been the confequence, but in what vain ex- pectation he might have taken that courfe : Juft as finners, under awakenings of confcience, are (till difpofed to feek life in the way of the Old Covenant. And it was mercifully that the Lord excluded him from betaking himfelf to that imaginary remedy ; fo as he might betake himfelf to the only true and ef- fectual remedy in the firft promife, refting his whole .confidence and hope upon that ground. CHAP* n6 A View of the CHAPTER VI. Of Qitr natural Subjection to the Covenant of War ku % t ^T^HE Covenant of Works, in its pofiiwefldMj J[ was peculiar to our firjl parents. It was a fpeciai act of God's providence towards man, when he wis created; not a matter of natural knowledge to him, but wholly of revelation. And this pofitive It ate of the Covenant came to be for ever at an end, Jo loon as it was broken: The man continued no longer under a ceft of obedience to the mere wi:l of Qod 9 in attaining from the forbidden fruit ; he was fent out of the garden, upon his once eating of it, fo as never to nave more ado with it. But he {till continued in ftfhjefijon to the Covenant of Works, according tp its natural ft ate. This was (till in be- ing, and in full force upon him, as to both precept 2nd penaby; and to remain i'o, till he mould be de- livered from it by a faving inter.eft in the New Co- venant. Moreover, in breaking the pofitive law, he lell froin his public character as a Covenant head of his natural posterity: And he (with the woman) fell back into that private character which was ori- ginal to him, under the moral law as. a Covenant- law ; according to the impreflion of it which was made upon him in his creation: While the penalty of death upon breaking the pofitive law, was the fame that belongs to every breach of the moral law, which the other comprehended. Accordingly, none of his natural pofterity are, or have ever been in a perfonal fubje&ion to the Co- venant of Works, according to its pofitive ftate. As he was foon removed from any further concern with the tree of knowledge of good and evil, none of Covenant 0/ Works. iij of them ever faw it ; and it has long ceafed to have any diiUnct exiflence : So that the Covenant, in this ftate, is not, as it never was of any immediate ob- ligation upon them. There is no natural apprehen- fion of any fuch thing: And there is no knowledge in the world, that fuch a ft ate of the Covenant ever was, but from the revelation of it in the Scripture,;; while it is revealed there as once a matter of. tact, not as of ftanding obligation. But though the Covenant, in that peculiar ftate of it, peculiar to our firft parents, came to be quite abolifiicd by the one fin of breaking it $ yet ihegmi of this fin, which they incurred, was. not ff.cv.Uar to them. For, as. it was committed by them in a pub- lic capacity, in the place and name of mankind; the guilt of it is common to every individual of thefe, as brought forth into a natural being. And this guilt comes to have a diftinguifhed place, in a tho- rough conviction of fin; as may be confidered iu the next chapter, § II. The Covenant of Works in its natural ft '-ate , is I'.mwon to all mankind. It is a matter of natural' knowledge to all : It is dill interwoven with human nature, as in the cafe of the fir ft man; though not in any fuch perfection and diftinclnefs of the inv prefiion, as belonged to his upright nature. But fo.me apprehenfion of the moral law as a Covenant- law, is natural to all mankind in their earthly ftate* For this ftate could not admit of eternity in the na- ture of it, like that which the angeis were created in. A ilate of happinefs in the immediate enjoyment of God, beyond and above all animal exercifes and enjoyments on earth, is what human nature was formed with a defire of. But this higher ftate was naturally defired and expe&ed, only as the iflue of obedience to God's will on earth. Such was the o- riginal, |i& A View of tH riginal, engrained dictate of reafon and confidence} about arriving at a glorious dare of eternal life in heaven, as the pnfequence oi living unto God on earth: And this is jud the form of the Covenant of Works, as eifential to that nature with which God has been jdeafed to endow mankind. Accordingly, the natural apprehenfions which all men have of any happihei's in the other world, do fiill run out in the profpect of obtaining it by their own obedience, — by the deeds of the law; as this law, in the natural apprehenfions of it, doth (till bear that notification, The man which doth thofe things JJjall live by them: It (till carries this dictate in it, as natural to it; if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. The moral law is therefore naturally in force u- pon all, as a Covenant-law. In all the declarations which the Scripture make of it to men, as in their natural eitate, it is (till propofed to them in its Cove- nant-form: Juft in the fame manner, abdracting from peculiar circumftances, as it was to Ifrael from mount Sinai, It is thus a law requiring obedience to it, for the obtaining of eternal life upon that ground: But the obedience which it requires for tiiis end, is nothing lefs than abfolate perfection thereof. i/?, The obedience mud be perfect, as to the mat- ter of it. It mud comprehend a performance of all duties belonging to every one's place, in thoughts and words and actions » according to all the extent of the moral law, in both the fubltance and circum- ftances of thefe duties. It mud exclude all fins of commilTion and omiilion, of wickednefs and weak- nefs. For this awful certification belongs to the Co- venant of Works ; curfed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law, Covenant of Works* 119 law, to do them *. Every failure is a breach of that Covenant; and an univerfal breach of it, for- feiting all pretenfions to life by it: For whofoever Jhall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point) is gwlty of alt f. idly, The obedience muff be perfect, as to the principle of it. It mufl: be from a principle of love to God, a;id our neighbour: For the law faith j Thou jhalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy foul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy Jirength ; and thy neighbour as thy J elf 'J. It mufl: be with delight in the law of the Lord ||. It mud be with an ultimate regard to the glory of God, as our chief end : For the law faith ; Whether there- fore ye eat or drink, or whatfoever ye do, do all to the glory of God §. And therefore it mufl: not be a mercenary obedi- ence, or fimply for the fake of obtaining life by the works of the law. Man's obedience, even in his primitive eftate, when capable of performing all thefe works, was not to be of that nature. The obligation of the law, in the Covenant of Works, did nowife depend upon the promife of life in that Covenant ; as if, abftracling from this, obedience had not been due. Conformity to the law could have nothing of natural merit in it 5 but the profpecl: of eternal life, on that ground, did wholly arife from from God's engagement by a free promife: And fo, the life was to be a matter of thankful expectation through obedience, not of a mercenary claim on that account. The Covenant-law can admit of no re- gard to our own good, but in a fubordination to the glory of God. ydly, The obedience mufl: be perfect as to the du>> ration of it. It cannot admit of any intermiilions ; but * Gal. ill. ic. f James ii. 10. % Mark xii. 30, 31. )| Pfal. i, 2. f 1 Cgr. x. 35. \2b A View of the but miift run on, without interruption, through the whole courfe of creature-being. For even fuppof- ing a perleverance in it, forward unto a (late of con- firmation; when the obedience would be finifhed, as to its conditional nature in the Covenant of Works : Yet a perpetuity of it mud (till remain, for eternal homage to God in an immediate enjoyment of him. Such is our natural fubjection to the Covenant of Works: And fuch is the claim which it makes of o- bedience, upon the pain of eternal death in hell. No- thing of its original force is abated: Nor could it now fail, more than at firfl, to give eternal life ; u- pon a full Satisfaction of all its demands. A promile of this life was a natural and jr/v/2 dictate of that Co- venant, in the conscience of upright man; proceed- ing on a perfection of obedience : But the natural remains of fuch a dictate, in the confeience ofjlnful men, is quite erroneous, — becaufe it abftracts from that necelfary perfection; while, on the contrary, their confeience mould now dictate their actual fub- jection to the juit penalty of death, for every act of difobedience. § III. All mankind are not left to continue in this natural fubjection to the Covenant of Works. A certain number who are redeemed from the earth, re- deemed from among men, the nations of them which are faved, — are delivered from that woful fubjection ; and their deliverance fromit is through a glorious myftery of the grace and power of God. As, i/2, The righteoufnefs of that Covenant has been fulfilled, and full Satisfaction has been made for the breach of it, — and a purchale has been thus made of eternal life for them; by the Lord Jesus Christ, as having come into a ftate of fubjection to it for them, in their place and name : So that, upon their coining Covenant of Works. 121 toming to be in him by faith, they have no more concern with the law in its Covenant-form. 2cIIy 9 As they come to be in him by faith, they are endowed with a new nature ; having the law put into their mind, and written in their heart, — not as a Covcnani-law, but only as a rule of life. The Cove- nant law, which was interwoven with, and erTential to manhood in its natural ftate, has no place at ail in this new or renewed nature ; that original impreflion of it on their heart is fo far gracioufly effaced : And they deal with the Covenant-law fet forth in the Scriptures, as a law which Chrifl has fulfilled for them; leaving them to have nothing ado with it in that form, but only as a rule for living unto him in a courfe of falsification. CHAPTER VII. Of our natural Eftate under the Covenant of Works* AS man was firft fubjecled to that Covenant, he was fully qualified for obtaining life by it ; in an eftate of innocence, of holinefs and happinefs. But the cafe did loon become the very reverie. For, § I. All mankind are naturallv in a ftate of fub- jection to the guilt of the fir -ft Jin; the fin of eating the forbidden fruit, by which the Covenant of Works was broken. They all committed that fin, as repre- fented by and acting in the firft man * : And they are feverally, as broughi forth info the world, lying under theguilt of it; or a UabLenefs to the whole pe- O nalty * Chap. II, Sea. I. § II. Hi A View of the nalty of death, to the wrath and curfe of God on that account. The fin imputed to them, lays them under the penalty to be inflicted; the penalty of that firft fin, as comprehending in it a breach of the whole moral law. Yet the fin of eating the forbidden fruit, with the guilt thereby incurred, is nowife a matter of natural apprehenfion ; as there is no knowledge of it, or of the Covenant of Works with the firft man as a public perfon, othervvife than by revelation. The moral law ferves to give the knowledge of fin *; when it comes to be ufed by the Holy Sprit upon the con- fcience of a finner, in the work of conviction. But the moral law can difcover nothing about the fin of breaking the pofttive law. And fo, in the greater!: meafure of conviction by the moral law, even all the conviction which can precede converfion, there can be no conviction of that fin; whatever general no- tion there may be of the Scripture-doctrine concern- ing it. All other fin, as difcovered by the law in an awakened confcience, is a matter of knozvledge ; for the law is not of faith f : But this fin is a matter of faith, upon the divine teflimony concerning it in the Scripture. A perfon is therefore brought to fee and take with this fin, only when his conviction if- fues in converfion; or when his mind is favingly en- lightened in the knowledge of Chrift. For Chrift is then feen in his relation to thefr/l man, — as being the fecond man, the Lord from heaven; as a head of righteoufnefs to the perfon, in the New Covenant : And this implies a humbling fight of his natural e- flate under thtfirfl man, as to him a head of unrigh- teoufnefs in the Covenant of Works. And though none can have any apprehenfions of this matter, who have not the Scripture to inform them of it ; yet all who have died, and fhall die in their fins, mud intui- tively and dreadfully apprehend it in the other world. S n. * Rom. iii. 20. f Gal. iii. 12. Covenant of Works. 125 % II. All mankind are naturally in a Hate of ori-. ginalfin. — The foul is created by God in the womb, under a want of original righteoufnefs ; and that, as the juft demerit of the firft fin. God puts no evil into the foul, when creating it ; but the want of natural righteoufnefs •, mud infer a natural unrighteoufnefs. For there can be no proper midft, in a foul, betwixt moral good and evil ; more than betwixt light and darknefs, betwixt heat and cold. And it is evenab-^ furd to fuppofe, that a corrupt man could have an un~ corrupt progeny : As it is to fuppofe, that one could bring a clean thing out of an unclean ; or that a fourth tain can fend forth , at the fame place, fweet water and bitter; or that a corrupt tree can bring forth good fruit *. The pofterity of the firft man are therefore in the fame fmful condition, as to the ftate of their nature, which he fell into f. They are Jhapen in iniquity, and conceived in fin; they aie eft ranged from the womb, and go ajlray as foon as they be born J : Having loll- that image of God which originally belonged to hu- man nature. Their underfianding is darkened, and* filled with error ; in oppofition to the light of divine truth, and any proper knowledge of God ||. Their wills are in a ftate of contrariety to his will : The car-, nal mind, the minding of the flefh, of corrupt nature, is enmity againft God;, it is not fubjecl to the law of God, neither indeed can be in its natural eftate §. They are thus enemies to God by their mind in wicked works', being haters of God**. They mind earthly things ff , in the whole courfe of their affeclions. And their confcience is defiled by guilt : So that if it be not afleep^ * Job xiv. 4.; James iii. II ; Matth. vii. 18. f Chap. V. ^ VIII. % Pfal. li. 5. ; lviii. 3. || Eph. iv. 18... fRom.viii.y. **Col. i. 21.; Rom. i. 30. \\ Phil. iii. 19. 124 A View of the afleep, or as feared with a hot iron ; they can only have a certain fearful looking fr of judgment * '. The Covenant of Works was not properly broken, till in the firit man's eating the forbidden fruit. His poiterity derive inbred corruption from him, con- sidered as fallen by this breach of the Covenant. Their being involved in the guilt of that fin, as their guilt in him, — muft therefore be confidered as pre- vious, in the order of nature, to their deriving of fuch corruption from him ; this being the founda- tion upon which they do fo, as the juft reafon of their ibuls being created under a want of original righteoufnefs. — Some metaphafical reafonings which have been ufed to the contrary, however fpeciouSj cannot accord to the nature of the cafe f. § III. All mankind are naturally in a Hate of ac- tual wickedne/s. The corruption of their natures takes effect in an universality of (infulnefs; through the whole courfe of their thoughts, and words, and actions. In this refpecl the whole world lieth in ivick- ednefs \. The molt horrid floods thereof have been overfpreading it in every age ; bidding defiance to the very being, as well as to the whole authority and * I Tim. iv. 2. ; Tit. i. 15. ; Heb. x. 27. •j- The firft man's public chara&er did not abolifh or fuperfedc his private character ; but was only fuperadded to it for a time : And he mud have adted iirboth thf fe characters, when commit- ting his firft complex fin. His inward compliance with Sa an's temptation, and the ejBcft of it in his foul, — belonged to him only as a private per -fon, not involving his pofterity; becaufe it did not become a public deed, of breaking the Covenant in their name, as well as for himfelf — till it became a finished deed, in his ac- tual eating ot the forbidden fruit. Their participation with him in that public guilt, his only public guilt, — muft therefore be pri- or, in order of nature, to all their pcrfonal derivations from him of moral and penal evil ; as the ground upon which thefe deriva- tions proceed, J I John v. t 9. Covenant of Works. 125 and will of the one true God. Every article of his law is trampled upon ; often in the groiieit forms of irrejigipn and immorality. And even when per- sons, in their natural eitate, are doing what is materially good ; ytt thi^ is made whclly evil, by their ungodly or felfiih manner of doing it. And no fpeculative light in the ui derflanding, nor any re* monflrances of a galing confcieiice, — can in any meafure iubdue the corruption of the heart, for aboiifhing or impairing the flate of a&ual wicked- neis; however much the forms of it may be thereby altered. They are all gone out of the way ; they are together become unprofitable, filthy : There Is none that doth good, na not one: — There is no fear of God before their eyes *. § IV. All mankind are naturally in an eftate of mifery. They are under God's wrath and curfe, un- to mod dreadful effecls thereof; both in this life, and in that which is to come. i/r, Tney are naturally undergoing the effects of that curie, in all the courieand circumftai ces of their preient life. What felt punifnaients, what fuffer- ings of every fort, — have been all along palling u- pon the human kind, in the righteous judgment of God! What public calamities have fwept away multitudes, through ail the bypaft periods of time ; introductory to an approaching defhuction of this whole vifible woild, on account of human wicked- ness ! And as to the outward blejfings which are en- joyed by corrupt and w eked men even thefe are cur- fed unto them : Their table is made afnare, and a trap, and a flumbling-block, and a (judicial) recommence unto them f . It univerfally holds, that definition and mi- fery are in their ways J. idly, * Rom. ili. 12, 18.; Pfal. xiv. 3. f Mai. i. 2.; Rom. xi. 9. J Rom. ili. 1^* 126 A View of the 2dly, God has been all along exercifing a won- derful forbearance and long-fuffering toward the finful race of mankind, while going on in their wick- ednefs; but this is wholly limited to the courfe of their time, and muft iflue in the horrors of a death-, bed. No felt effects of his wrath and curfe, in this life, do erer nearly amount to the full wages of fin: But at death, and in the world to come, even through an eternal ftate, for ever and ever, — thefe wages will be paid, and ever a-paying, fo far as finite na- ture can admit of that effect. The Scripture repre- fents the condition of wicked men in the other world, as a ftate of everlafling punijhment, of abfolute and unabating torment ; of wailing andgnajhing of teeth *. « — Such is the death finners are finally fubjecled to, under the Covenant of Works f . § V. The moft part of thofe within the vifible Church are living in a ftate of brutal ft upidity, as to their natural eftate under the Covenant of Works, It holds of them, that they know not, neither will they under ft and; they walk on in darknefs J. They under- ftand not, nor take any thought about the fmfulnefs and mifery of their natural eftate. They live, all along, wholly unconcerned about death and the judgment beyond it ; as if they were like the beafts that perifh, or were to be done when they die. They indulge themfelves in carnal enjoyments and amufe- ments ; each upon the matter faying to his foul,— take thine eafe 9 eat 9 drink and be merry : Quite regard- lefs of all God's warnings, in his word and provi- dence, about the woful end of thefe things. And if at any time awakened to fome confideration of their ways, they fatisfy themfelves with fome general pre- emption * Matth. xxv. 46.; Luke xvi. 23, 24.; Matth. xiii. 42, 50. t Chap. I. Sea. IV. j Tial. lxxxii, 5. ; Eccl. iii. 18,.; jx. 3. Covenant of Works. 127 fumption of God's mercy: Or they reft in a vain no- tion that they may have an opportunity and more leifure afterwards, for laying everlafting concerns to heart. § VI. Many of thofe within the vifible Church are living in a woful delujion, as to their natural eftate under the Covenant of Works ; who yet appear to have a rational, and even ferious concern about their everlafting falvation. Some of thefe underftand not, or confider not, or relifh not the fcriptural way of falvation; and live as if nothing more were ne- ceffary for obtaining it, than an external regularity in the performance of religious and relative duties. But others of them, even after great advances in religious knowledge and exercifes, are ftill feeking falvation and eternal life in the way of the Old Co- venant. They underftand not the natural marriage and attachment of their hearts unto the way of doing for life, according to that Covenant; or they fee no evil in it. They continue under the reigning power of that finful attachment; not merely under fuch re- mains of it as are to be found in the beft. They in- deed make fome account of the New-Covenant righ- teoufnefs, as the ground of their acceptance with God and title to eternal life; but this is only by way of fupplement for their own deficiencies, in going a~ bout to efiablifh their own right eonfnefs *. They have never feen the natural oppofition of their hearts, un- to an abfolute and immediate dependence on the righteoufnefs of Chrift ; at leaft they have feen no evil in that oppofition, or in a compounding of his righteoufnefs with their own for juftiflcation. They have never become dead to the law, and married to Christ ; but are living in a woful delufion, as if ^hey were building their confidence and hope on a good * Rom, s. .3. ta8 A View of the good foundation, though never getting beyond re- finements upon an Old-Covenant religion *. And it is mod lamentable, that many are entertained with pernicious do&rines,— directing them unto, and encouraging them in thatdelufive courfe. § VII. The eftate of mankind under the Cove- nant of Works, is naturally quite defperate.—They have no ability for recovering themfelves, from the depth of fin and mifery into which they are fallen .* No ability for anfwering the demands which that Covenant makes, of nothing lefs than perfect obe- dience for life, — -more than tits Ethiopian can change his fkin^ or the leopard his fpots \ ; nor can they do any thing for repairing the breach of that Covenant, by a proper fatisfaction. And they have no willingncfs to recover themfelves, or to be reco- vered, from the corruption of their natures and the finfulnefs of their lives : They love to have it fo * they love darknefs, rather than light ; they are objli- nate, their neck is an iron fine w, and their brow brafs; they refufe to be ajhamed\. Nor could any finite wifdom have ever devifed how their recovery mi^ht be brought about, confidently with the effential per* fections and prerogatives of the divine nature. No- thing within the compafs of their own doing or con- trivance, coud have prevented a perifhing of the whole human race for ever in hell : Their condition bens; naturally as defperme as that of devils. But the only wise God, the Kin 7 g eternal, HATH REMEMBERED US IN OUR LOW ESTATE; FOR HIS MERCY ENDURETH FOR EVER II ! * Rom. vli 4, 6. f Jer. xlii. 23. % J er « v - 3 1 » John iii. iq. ; Ifa. xlviii. 4. j Jer. iii. 3. J] Pfal. cxxxvi. 23. SACRED i SACRED CONTEMPLATIONS PART SECOND.. A VIEW OF THE COVENANT of GRACE: t I N T H E ESTABLISHMENT of it from Eternity ; AND THE- ACCOMPLISHMENT of it in Time ; AND THE EFFECT of it through Eternity. I have made a Covenant with my Chofen, Psal. lxxxix. 3. Sj>uam dives es in Mifericordia, quam magnificus in Jujlitia, qua?n munificus in Gratia, Dsmine Deus nofier ! Bernardus. [In English. 3 How rich in Mercy, how magnificent in Juftice, how munificent in Grace art thou, O Lord our God ! [ i3i ] ADVERTISEMENT. After haying made fome progrefs in the View of the Covenant of Works •, the Author conceived a defign of proceeding afterwards, as he hath now done, to a View of the Cove- nant ofCrace* The writings of fome eminent men on that fubject, have been of lingular ufe for preferr- ing and propagating the truth of the gofpel. But they could not exhaufl that great fubjeel: And the Author has been led to. confider it in a very different manner. At the fame time, — he hath freely obviated feveral things ad- vanced in fome of thefe writings, which he confidered as mifapprehenfions of the fubjedl. The doctrine of this Covenant is the furrt of the gofpel; in which only, all our help and hope for eternity is to be found: And people are wofully impofed upon, to their e- verlafting perdition, — when any thing con- trary unto, or even different from this, is put upon them under the character of the Gofpel. The courfe which God prefcribes to [ J 3* ] to every firmer for falvation, is this, — Lei him take hold of my Covenant : And, in order to this, it is neceffary that they underftand the mat- ter and method of that Covenant, in the ad- miniftration of it to them by the gofpel. This Covenant is full of Right eoiifnefs, for the jujiif cation of guilty finners; and of Grace, for t\\t\Y fanclif cation to eternal glory: So that, without taking hold of it by faith, — men mull die under all the guilt, and in all the defilement of their fin; unto a Hate of eter- nal death in hell. A V I E W OF THE COVENANT of GRACE, ®c. THE truth of the Covenant of Works, in its per- manent flate, is naturally known: All may find fome evidence of it, in an imprefiion thereof u- pon their own hearts. The full reprefentation of that Covenant, indeed, is only to be found in the Scriptures: Yet this is properly a reftoration of it from the deficiencies of that natural imprefiion, which have taken place fmce the breach of it; and from thofe errors which corrupt minds have fallen into concerning it. — But the truth of the Covenant of Grace is known only by revelation: It is fet forth to us in the holy Scriptures, as wholly a matter of faith upon the divine teftimony \ which is the higheil fort of evidence that can be propofed to the human mind. We are faved through faith % as embracing and improving that revealed Covenant; of which natural reafon has no apprehenfion, and could make no difcovery. The eternal falvation of a finner, as to both the fad and poiiibility of it, lies entire!] with- out * Eph. ii, 8, 1 34 A View of the out the compafs of reafon 3 which ferves only for the purpofes of the prefent life, nowife of the life to come. The matter of that falvation, and the manner of its attainment, belong wholly to the object and exer- cife of a divine faith ; according to that Covenant. The mockers of this lad time, filled with a pride of their ovyn reafon, do indeed laugh at faith in the matters of eternal happinefs ; hut they do fo, at the peril of their everlalting damnation. It is now propofed to take fome view of the Cove- nant of Grace y in the three great Periods of it \ or in its Efiablijhment from eternity, and its Accomplifh- merit in time, and its Effect through eternity. PERIOD I. Of the Eftablifhment of the Covenant of Grace from Eternity. SEC T. I. Of the Reality of the Covenant of Grace. This Covenant is nowife a matter of imagination, but of abfolute reality or truth. Many evidences of this might be collected from the Scriptures; but it may fuffice, after what has been formerly faid *., to infift on fuch of them as are of a more direct and de- cifive nature. § I. The reality of the Covenant of Grace appears, from the mention which is exprefsly made of it in Scripture. * Part I. Chap. II. Sea. I. § I. 5^/7. Covenant of Grace. 135 Scripture. The only inftance of this, among many » which fhall be prefently infifted on, lies in the 89th pfalm: / have made a Covenant with my Chofen, I have fworn unto David my fervant ; thy feed will I e- flablifi for ever, and build up thy throne to all gene- rations *. The fpeaker, in this paflage, can be ho other but the Lord; who is mentioned in the beginning of the pfalm. That the defignations [piy chofen, David my fervant'] were immediately meant of the literal David, will not be queftioned. But it would be art ufing of the reader with fome indignity, to be at pains for proving to him, — that the gracious declara- tions and promifes in the pfalm referred to, could bear but a very fubordinate application to that perfon; as this will be obvious, at one reading of the pfalm. Jesus Christ, and his fpiritual kingdom in the Church, were mod fignally typified by the literal Da- vid and his kingdom in Ifrael. Accordingly, long afterwards, the Lord did again and again fpeak of Jesus Christ, and promifed him as to come, un- der the fame defignation, — David my fervant f . And a folemn declaration was made concerning him when he came, to the fame purpofe : The Lord God fhall give unto him the throne of his father David ; and he fhall reign over the houfe of Jacob (not literal but fpi- ritual ) for ever, and of his kingdom there Jhall be no end\. Moreover, long after the literal David had difappeared, the Lord promifed this fpiritual David to make his appearance, under a parallel defigna- tion; my fervant whom I have chofen, mine Elect in whom my foul delighteth ||. It is therefore beyond all reafonable queftion, — that the paflage now under confideration mud be underftood, as having its ultimate and principal ve- rification * Pfal. lxxxi'x. 3, 4. f Ezek. xxxiv. 23, 24.; xxxrii. 24. 25. \ Luke i. 32, 23. || tit. xlii. 1. : xliii. 19. 136 A View of ihe rihcation in Jesus Christ ; averting a covenant made with him on behalf of his fpiritual feed, and of his royal government among them. And this co- venant was then fpoken of as already made ; even made from all eternity, according to the eternity and im- mutability of the divine parties : So that it can be no other but a Covenant of Grace with Chrift, on behalf of fmful men. § II. The reality of the Covenant of Grace ap- pears, from the ftate of matters about fome of fallen mankind before the world began. A (hiking dif- covery of this, lies in the 8th chapter of the Pro- verbs *. Sufficient evidence will be given in another fe&ion, — that it is Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, who is there fpeaking of himfelf under the character of Wifdotn ; the perfonal Wifdom of God* He fays, — that he was fet up from everlafting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. As thus fet up by the eternal Father from everlafting, he fays — I was rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth, and my delights were with the fons of men ; as then all pre- fent to him, in the decree about their future exig- ence and condition. And this mult certainly coin- cide with his having been foreordained for them before ihe foundation of the world f . He was then fet up and foreordained, fo that grace was given them in Chrift Jefus before the world began j. Accordingly, God promifed eternal life to them before the world be- gan I : And this promife could not be given to them- felves immediately, when they had no existence; it could only be given to them in Chrift, as grace was given to them in him. -And all this can mean no- thing other than what it is brought to prove; a gracious Prov. viii. 23. 31. f 1 Pet. i. 20. % 2 Tim. Tit. i. 2. Covenant of Grace. 137 gracious eftablifhment then made, a Covenant of Grace with Chrift on their behalf. § III. The reality of the Covenant of Grace ap- pears, from the fad of the final and everlafling fal- vation of fome of fallen mankind. The Scriptures are fo full of this bleffed fact, that it is quite needlefs to deal in any proof of it. And their final falvation through eternity, mud be the effect of a decree con- cerning it from eternity ; as nothing could come to pafs, but from its having been foreordained by God's eternal purpofe. And unto this falvation they are exprefsly faid to have been chofen before the founda- tion of the world; being predejlinated thereto, accord* ing to the purpofe of him who worketh all things after the counfel of his own will* \ But this could not be by zfimple decree. Accord- ing to what has been obferved in another place f,— • the effential perfections and prerogatives of the di- vine nature could not have admitted of their falva-* tion, but through a full effecl of the law-curfe to which they are naturally fubjected : And fuch an ef- fect of it upon themfelves, muff have abfolutely pre- vented their falvation for ever. It could only be, as the Scripture declares it to have been; through their being redeemed from the curfe of the law, by Chrift's being made a curfe for them J. The decree of their falvation muft therefore have been fuch, as contain- ed a gracious eftablifhment for having it effectuated in that manner ; a Covenant of Grace with Chrift in their behalf. § IV. The reality of the Covenant of Grace ap- pears, from the method of grace in the actual falva- tion of forne^ of fallen mankind. They are faved by Q^ grace : * Eph. I 4, n. f P a n I. Ch. I. Sea. IV. $ III. t Gal. Hi. 13. 13* A View of the grace * ; By the mere grace, or free favour of God toward them, without the deeds of the law; in oppo- fition to all pretended merit by any works of righte- oufnefs which they have done, all to the praife of the glory of his grace f . But this grace could not take ef- fect upon them, inconfiftently with the glory of di- vine holinefs and juftice and truth. It was necefia- ry that mercy and truth jhould meet together, that righ- teoufnefs and peace Jhould kifs each other \; that the divine holinefs and juftice, as well as grace, fhould be glorified in the manner of their falvation : That it fhould be through a repairing of the breach of the Covenant of Works; and through a maintaining of the glory of the divine juftice and truth, by a fatif- faction for that breach. Accordingly, we are exprefsly taught, — that grace reigns through right eoufnefs unto eternal life, by jfefus Chriji our Lord; in his repairing the breach of the Covenant of Works, by fulfilling all the righteouf- nefs of it for them: And it is through his being made fin for them, under the imputed guilt and in- flicted punifhment of it ; that they might be made the righteoufnefs of God in him ||. Such is the method of grace in their actual falvation, to the glory of all the divine perfections ; a method which mud have been fettled in the counfel of God from eternity, ac- cording to which only he proceeds in time: And which muft certainly import a gracious eftablifhment for this purpoie ; a Covenant of Grace with Chrift a* bout their falvation. § V. The reality of the Covenant of Grace ap* pears, from the perfonal Jhite of J>:sus Christ* It fhall only be obferved here, that he bears the (late of a public pcrfoiu In comparifon with the Jirft man, he * Eph. ii. 5, 8. f R° m - IJi - 2 7» a8 - » Tlt ' liu 5 ,; EpU. i. 6. X Pfcl- lxxxv. io. | Rom. v. 21. ; 2 Cor. v. 2 i- Covenant of Grace. 139 he is called the fecond man *. Of him the fir ft man was a figure f , a reprefenting type. In him all the redeemed from among men are made alive ; as they have all died in the fir ft man J. By his obedience they are all made righteous \ as, by the firft man's difobedience they were made /inner s ||.~ -And it is impoflible to put any rational fenfe upon all this, but as denoting a Covenant- he adjhip in the perfon of Chrift ; which can only be in his having a Covenant *f Grace made with him from all eternity, for the falvation of all who are faved from among men. In a word, — the whole matter and manner of the falvation of finners, according to the gofptl, pro- claims the reality of that Covenant. For this falva- tion could not be by mere acts of divine will Tm&pow- er, confidently with God's not denying himfelf: It could not be but through an interpofitioji of the ma- nifold- wifdom of God §; providing for this falvation by price as welt as power, to the glory of all his name, — in an eftablifhment of a Covenant of Grace with Jefus Chrift for that purpofe. Every thing which belongs to our recovery from trie finfulnefs and mifery of our natural eftate, muft be traced up to that Covenant : And upon the faith of it depends all our falvation, with all proper exercife concerning the fame. SECT, II. General Obfervations about the Covenant of Grace. § I. The Covenant of Grace has no parallel, or any other tranfaclion that may be properly brought into a comparifon with it ; but the Covenant of Works * 1 Cor. xv. 47. f Rom. v. 14. £ 1 Cor. xv. 22. || Rom. v. 19. See Part I. Chap. II. Sett. I. § Eph. iii. 10. 140 A View of the Works which was made with the fir ft man. This parallel is very proper ; as it is exprefsly ftated in feveral paflages of Scripture that have been confides ed. The firft man was a Covenant-rhead or repre^ Tentative of all his natural feed: Who were to (land or fall, in and with him: as he fhould fulfil or break the condition of that Covenant which was made with him for them, and with them in him. Accordingly, Ji-sus Christ is a Covenant-head or reprefentative of all his fpiritual feed : Who have a (landing in a ftate of acceptance with God, and a title to eternal life ; wholly upon his fulfilled condition of that Co- venant which is made with him for them,, and with them in him. But no covenants which God ever made with any other [as with Noah, Abraham, Mofes, Phineas, and David\ ought to be mentioned in any comparifon with the Covenant of Grace ; as to a reprefentative capacity of the parties covenanted with. For none of thefe were reprefeniati-vcs, in any fuch fenfe as. Chrift was. They were natural roots of different parties, to whom promifes were made through them : but they were nowife Covenant -heads or reprefenta- tives of thofe parties, as at once to ftand or fall in and with them; more than parents ftili are, when having the promife unto them and their children. § II. The Covenant of Grace, in comparifon with the Covenant of Works, is called the feco?id or New Covenant : But this is not with any refpect to the period or order in which it was made. In all fuch reipects, it was the firft and an old Covenant -, this having been made from eternity, and the other on- ly in time. But there was no ptace for its being re- vealed and taking any effect, till the Covenant of Works was broken ; fo that, with regard to the ma- nifeftation Covenant of Grace. 141 nifeflation and adminiftration thereof, it is ihe/eeond and the New Covenant. According to our finite way of conceiving, we have to think or this Covenant as made of old ; in a period long ago pad, infinitely before all worlds. But, with regard to the divine Parties concerned in making of it, this is ever prefent and new; as, un- to them, nothing can be paft or future. The ful- filling of its condition was to man a matter of futu- rity at the revelation of it, for about four thoufand years: But it was ever prefent to God; fo that he proceeded upon it in laving finners, under the Old- Teftament (late, as a fulfilled condition. And though this was a matter of futurity to the manhood of Jefus Chrifr, till he finifhed his work upon the crofs; yet, with regard to him as God-man, it was ever prefent: For, as to himfelf in that blelTed character, he faid of himfelf, — before Abraham was (not, I ivas, but) I am * ; all that is pad to us, with all that is future to us, being ever prefent to him. Such is the glorious and inconceivable manner of duration which be- longs to the divine Being, in each perfon of the Godhead ! § III. The Covenant of Grace is a Covenant of Re- demption, The bleifednefs therein provided through Chrift for finners of mankind, is fet forth in Scrip- ture under the general character of redemption ; eter- nal redemption, which he has obtained for them f . He is often called the Redeemer ; and Job looked for- ward to him in that character, my Redeemer j. He is the Redeemer of men, as becoming a kinfman to them ; the only kinfman of the human family, who has a right and capacity for redeeming them: Nor could he accomplish their redemption, but in this relation to them ; that he might be capable of ferv- John viii. 58. f Heb. ix. 12. % Job xlx. 25, ing 142 A View of the ing and fuffering for them in their nature. — And all the faved people of that family, are called the redeem- ed of the Lord *. His great employment concern- ing them in that Covenant was, to redeem them that were under the law ; from their natural fubjedtion to the law of the Covenant of Works, in all its com- manding and curfmg power as fuch : To redeem them from the curfe of the law, in all its obligation and ef- fects ; to redeem them from all iniquity ; to redeem them unto God, into a irate of glorious conformity to him and communion with him in heaven for e- ver f. And all this redemption is, not only by an efficacy of his infinite power, but alfo by a prise of infinite value ; the precious blood of Chrift \. It is therefore a Covenant of Redemption to Chrift, as to the matter of his employment therein. But at the fame time, as to the origin of it, and our enjoyment of that redemption, — it is wholly a Covenant of Grace to us. Our redemption through it, is according to the riches of his grace : Before God, we are juflified freely by his grace ; but it is through the redemption thai k in Jtfus Chriji ||. § IV. There is only one Covenant of God's mak- ing, the Covenant of Grace and Redemption, for the eternal falvation of mankind finners. The Scripture reveals but one for that purpofe; the new Covenant, the everlafling Covenant, As man's ruin is by one Covenant, his recovery is likewife by one. God has but one falvation; one way of faving fin- ners, by one Christ. There is, therefore, no propriety in this definiti- on which has been given of the Covenant of Grace: " It is a gracious convention betwixt God and fin- " ful eleel man; by which, for the intervening me- " diation * I fa. lxii. ii. f Gal. it, 5. ; m. 13. ; Tit. ii. 14. ; Rev. y. 9. \ 1 Pet. i. 19. || Eph. i. 7. y Rom. iii. 24. Covenant of Grace. 143 * c diation of Chrift, all faving grace and glory is al- " lotted to thofe who believe and repent :" — Or, in other words, " It is a gracious convention betwixt " an offended God and offending man ; for beftow- « ing grace and glory, in Chrift, upon finful man, " under the condition of faith." And it may be ob- ferved, that, y?, Such a Covenant as this mud: have its begin- ning in time ; as it could not be entered into imme- diately with eled finful men before they exifted. And, therefore, it muft be very different from that Covenant of Grace which was entered into immedi- ately with Jefus Chrift, from all eternity. %dlf 9 According to the above-cited definition^ Chrift is fet forth as the Mediator betwixt God and iinful man : But he cannot, according to the Scrip- tures, or without abfurdity, be fet forth as the Me- diator of two diftinct Covenants •, the one made with him for men from all eternity, and the other made with man through him in time. 3 f Rom. xi. 33. Covenant of Grace. 159 pofc bears the form of a promlfc ; a manifold and moil comprehenfive promife by God the Father: His own purpofe and grace, which was given them in Chrift jfefus ; the purpofe and grace of eternal life, which God that cannot lie promifed before the world began *. SECT. VI. Of the Undertaker in the Covenant of Grace, The eternal Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, is the undertaking Surety in that Covenant. The need of every perifhing fmner for whom he undertook, had a fay to him, before the finner's exigence : Lord, / am oppreJ/ed 9 undertake for me f : And to this fay he was mo.ft gracioufly attentive, under the Father's ordination of him to that office ; having* his delights, from everlafting, with the fons cf men\.— Y)\Q true and fupreme Godhead of Jesus Christ, as the fame one God with the Father, has been fomewhat confi- dered in another place ||. And fome view is to be taken of him in this place, on two particular heads ; on the head of his eternal Son/hip, before proceeding So that of his mediatory ft ate. HEAD L Of the Eternal Sonmip of Jefus Chrift. The doctrine of his being the Son of God by e^ ternal generation — is now very much oppofed, by ma- ny perfons of different denominations : And there- fore * 2 Tim. i. 9.; Tit. i. 2. f Ifa. xxxriii. 14. \ Prov. viii. 23. 31. \ Part*. Chap. II, .Se&. I. § I. \fl. •1 60 A View of toe fore it may be feafona'ole to enlarge upon this head, as of effential concern to the prefent fubjecl *. § I. It is to be evinced, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God by eternal generation. Some Scrip- tures give direct evidence, that his generation was from all eternity. But other evidences, that the character of Son belonged to him before his incar- nation, are the fame upon the matter : As it was never pretended, nor can be imagined, that he ac- quired this character in any preceeding point of time; and, therefore, his having been the Son of God be- fore he was made rlefh, — mud mean his having been fo by eternal generation. For this, the following ar- guments are propofed. i/?, That Jefus Chrift is the Son of God by eter- nal generation, appears from PfaL ii. y. 1 ajil/ declare the decree : The Lord hath fald unto me> Thou art my Son ; this day have I begotten thee. It is beyond all doubt that Christ is the perfon fpoken to by God the Father in the latter part of this verfe ; coniidering the direct application which is made * An infamous book was published in the year 1776; enti- tled, \_Ths true Sonship of C h ri st inve]iigated~\ : In which, not only the eternal Sonihip of Chrilt is molt boldly denied ; but a quite new fort of temporal Sonfhip is afcribed to him, — upon a horrid fcheme of animalcular generation. A fer??ion was foon af- ter preached and publifhed by the prefent writer; entitled, \_An Antidote again]} a new Heresy, concerning the true Son- ship of Jesus Christ: With an appendix, concerning the won- derful theory of animalcular generation; as lately brought in by a Clergyman of the Church of Scotland, for the proper ground of the fundamental article of the Chriftian religion /] This An- tidote was remarkably bleffed for a quick difpatch of that here- fy: And the reafoningj on the prefent head are extracted from that performance, with fome variations ; omitting many other things which it contains. — That monftrous herefy appears to be no more; farther than that the fhameful book containing it ftill cxifts: But new attacks are yet a-making upon the d«c"trine of the eternal generation. Covenant of Grace. i6i made of it to him in the New Teftament * : And that thefe words comprehend the proper doctrine of his generation. The only qiieftion therefore is, about the day here meant, — to which that generation is re- ferred. And, in general, it cannot be an interpreting, but a grofs impugning of the text; to change the af- fertion which it makes of Chrid's Sonihip as what then was, into a mere prophecy of it as what would afterwards be: Or to turn it off from ail prefent re- fpect to any day emitting in David's time; as if it had only a prophetical refpect, to fomc day in the future period of the manifeftation of Chrifl in the flefh. For fo, the words might have this flrange paraphrafe put upon them : Thoufialt become my Son about a thoufand years hence ; in Jome future day, at fuch a diftance of time, I will beget thee. The applications made of this text to Chriil in the New Teltament, bear not the fmalleii appearance of referring it to fuch a day : Farther than that, in one inftance *, it is emoted with a reference to his re- furrection. J3ut not fo much as any hint is there given, that he did then become the Son of God ; he was then only declared to be the Son of God with pow- er]. And an application is made of this text to him by the great Apoille, in fuch a manner as to bear a plain argument againil explaining it of any fuch day : Chrifl glorified not himfelf to be made an High Prie/i, but he that j aid unto him ; Thou art my Son y to- day have I begotten thee 4. For Chrifl was not but lately made an High Pried, only in or after his in- carnation. He was fo before ||, as much as he was conftituted a Mediator before, even from everlaft- ing : And his Sonfiip is there fet forth, as of the fame antiquity with his Prieflhood. T • This * A£h xiii. 33. -|- Rom. i. 4. -j: Heb. v. 5. [| PfaL ex. 4. 163 A View of the This pfalm, indeed, was chiefly prophetical of great events about the Meffiah and his kingdom, in the Church- (late among the Gentiles ; after his afcen- fion: But it was not fo prophetical as to be a mere prophecy; bearing no application to the ftate of matters in David's time. For the fecond Perfon of the glorious Trinity was then the Meffiah, the Lord's anointed, the Chr'tft ; as in the fecond verfe of this pfalm. He was then the Head and undertaking Surety of the New Covenant; yea had been fo from all eternity. He was then a King upon the holy hill of Zicn, as in the fixth verfe. Accordingly the con- spiracy which took plate in David's time, among the heathens around, againft the interefts of the Jewifh Church and nation, was principally a confpir:cy a- gainft the Lord and againft' his anointed, — his Chrift ; as the public interefts of the Jewifh people, did efyc- cially belong to thefc glorious parties- Therefore no argument cm be taken, with any fhadow of rea- fon, from the prophetical nature of the pfal-.n ; for turning the auertion which it makes of ChriiVs So?i- Jhij> 9 into a mere prophecy. It is manifeftly ineonftftent with every principle of juflice to the form of the words, as well as to the dodrine contained in them,— to explain this Son/hip as the matter of the decree ; and' fo as a future event, which the fecond Perfon of the holy Trinity had to declare concerning himfelf. The matter of the de- cree is evidently fet forth in the next two verfes : And the Sonfhip is evidently fet forth as the ground upon which that decree proceeds. The Sonfhip muff therefore have been as ancient as the decree ; and e- ver*y decree of God was from everlafting. What day, then, are we to underftand, as meant in the text referred to? It cannot be underftood, as properly denoting any one of ?narfs days ; either in David's time, or afterwards. It can only be under- ftood Covenant of Grace. 163 ftood of God's day, the day of eternity: Which, with God, is all one day, without any yefterday or to-mor- row ; — one permanent day, without any fu cccflion of parts ; a perpetual now, coexifting with every one of man's days. As the great Luther obferves, upon this place: " If we will fpeak as the thing is, — tc- " day, every day and always, the Son of God is be- " gotten ; for, in eternity there is neither paft nor " future, but a perpetual tc-dety." And, as he far- ther obferves, upon this text ; " to-day is here to " be taken for God's time, not ours: For God is ^ c not there fpeaking v ith us, but with him who is *« with God beyond time V Nor is this the only place where eternity is repre- fented under the character of a day, one day. A text runs in cur tranflation (by the help of the fup- plement was) ; before the day was, /am He-f. But the Uriel: and juft rendering is, from the day /am He; from the day of eternity, from all eternity. In the Greek tranflation of the Old Testament, which was ufed in our Lord's time, it is rendered , from the beginning J. Upon the whole, it is plain that our Lord's gene- ration as the Son of God, was not in any day of time ; but in the day of eternity j|. idly, That Jefus Chrifl: is the Son of God by eter- 71 al generation, appears from Pfal. ii. 12. Kifs the Son, left he be angry. — Thefe words enjoin a mod impor- tant duty towards the Son ; the fame glorious Perfon whofe generation is reprefented in the feventh verfe of % tolas in loco. f I fa. xliil. 13. J Pol. in loc. || It is a vain objection, that, fcr about three thcufand years before David's time, — the characters of Father and Son in the holy Trinity, were not revealed. The infinite One w s the pro- per judge, how revelation fhould gradually proceed : And it fhould be enough to us, that tins myftery is revealed ; was fo, even in the Jewifh Church. 164 A View of the of this pfalm. And upon whom was the duty enjoin- ed? was it only upon kings and judges of the earthy who. mould live in gop.l times; fo as it mould be made no account of by any perfon, for hundreds of years after David's time? The text would then bear this, mocking par^phrafe ; " Ye kings and judges who. " mail live in the Gentile churches above a thou- " fand years after my time, kiss, fay homage, — to " one who mail then become the Son j though, as " to what he prefently is, or whether he prefently " be at all, — I have nothing prefently to fay/' That bafe abufe of the words cannot be evited, but by taking them in their plain fenfe; as contain- ing a prefcription of then frejent duty, to peribns then in being, concerning an object then exifting as ■the Son : Containing the fame prefcription, likewife^ to perfons through all fucceeding generations. The words were applicable to the cafe of all, in David's time, who in any meafure enjoyed the reve- lation then made of the great Messiah * : Even to. fome kings and judges then around Judea ; who were not utter Grangers, however much enemies, to. that revelation. But they were more particularly- applicable to all the judges and people in David's kingdom; and likewife to all the kings and judges and people of following generations, in Ifrael and judah ; Though having a principal refpeel to thofe who were to exift under the gofpel-difpenfation. And as thefe words contain an enjoinment of then frefent duty, upon perfons then in being; it could not but be toward one who then was the Son, — and therefore fuch from everlafting. 3 dly y * Though the call is ex.prefsly given, only to kings and judges is for ever and ever. God the Father was there introduced, as fpeak- ing to God the Mefiiah ; and fpeaking to him of what then was the cafe of a throne which he then had : .For he was then fitting upon a throne in the Jewifh Church and nation ; as the Scripture mod exprefsly teftifieth *. But the Apoftie is pofttive, that what was then fa id was faid to the Son ; and there- fore to him who then was the Son, as having ever been fo. For it is quite unfufferable to pretend, — that though thefe words, as applied by the Apoftie, were become true in his time, yet they would have been falfe in David's time; if then applied in the fame prefent fenfe, to one who was not then the Son,— who then had no exiftence as fuch. 4th!y, That Jefus Chrift is the Son of God by eter- nal generation, appears from Prov. viii. 24, 25. When there were no depths I was brought forth : — Before the mountains were fettled \ before the hills was I brought forth. It is a (hiking inftance of what lengths one may be left to go, for ferving the purpofe of error ; when prefuming to explain away thefe verfes, and that whole chapter, from any application to the fecond Perfon of the adorable Trinity. The party fpeaking is Wifdom : And, as one obferves ; " none in the " ancient Church, no not the Arians themfelves, " did ever queftion, that by Wifdom here is under- " Hood the Son of God\" Nor has it ever been queftioned by any till now, but upon Sccinian prin- ciples. The *■ Ifa. vi. 1 ; John xii. 41. f Wifhcart's Thcologia, p. 748. \66 A View of the The term Wifdom, applied to Cod, is naturally the character of an attribute. But it is frequently in the book of Proverbs, as elfewhere in Scripture % determined by the context to a metaphorical fenfe ; as the character of a perfon f. And Wifdom, as fpeaking in the two verfes now quoted, is moll evi- dently determined by the context to a metaphorical fenfe, as the character of a perfon; of none other than the fecond Perfon of the eternal Trinity. Could God's attribute oiwifdom fayj I was brought forth before the mountains were fettled, fit up from ever- lafling ? Could it fay, / was by him as one brought up with him ? Could this attribute be property brought in faying,- — / was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him ; rejoicing in the habitable pari of his earth, and my delights were with thefons of men : When all this, if meant of an attribute, would have properly belonged to the attribute of Grace ?• The fame Wif- dom is brought in (chap. i. 23.), faying,— Turn you at my reproof \ behold I will pour out my fpirit unto you: And mud we underfland all this as meaning the re- proof of an attribute, the fpirit of an attribute ! A turning away of thefe paiTages from a proper appli- cation to Chrifl:, as the perjonal Wifdom of God, is a mod violent wrefting of them ; a turning of them to abfurdity and nonfenfe J. And this perfonal Wifdom fays, / was brought forth ; thai he was fo before this world had a being, from all eternity. Nor can any rational fenfe be put upon * Luke xi. 49. ; Matth. xxili. 34. f Where wifdom is twice mentioned, in the 5th and 14th verfes of this chapter, there ae two different words for it in the ori- ginal; bctb different fiom that ukd for wifdtm in the ift and 12th verfes. X It is fhamefi.l to objeft, that the Hebrew word rendered ivifdow is feminine. Fo is the Greek word rendered church in the New Teftament; and the void rendered perjen, in Heb. i. 3. Covenant of Grace. iC'j upon this, but as denoting the eternal generation ; di- rectly affirmed by Chrifl of himfelf, who is the per- fonal Wifdom of God : The word being the very lame in the original which David ufed [P/#/. li. 5.] for cxpreffing his own generation ;. when he confefled that he was paten (brought forth) in iniquity. $tbly, That Jefus Chrifl is the Son of God by eter- nal generation, appears from Prov. xxx. 4. Who hath afcended up into heaven, or defcended? Who hath gathered the wind in his fijls? Who hath bound the wa- ters in a garment ? Who hath cjlablifoed all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is his Son's name, if thou canjl tell ? There is another inftance, of the defperate fhifts that one may be driven to for fupporting error ; in an attempt of explaining away this whole paiTige from any application to God. And what then is the fenfe put upon it ? It is juffc taken for a defiance gi- ven by the Holy Spirit, to tell the name of the mere man, or (if he were dead) of that man's fon, who had done the great things mentioned in thefe words. But this is to bring in the Holy Spirit as bidding de- fiance to a fiction, as fighting with a fhadow. For none hsd ever pretended, that any mere man had ever done thefe things : Such an abfurd and blafphe- mous imagination, had never entered into the mind of any man or devil. The eternal God had, in a figurative fenfe, both defcended and afcended *: To him belongeth the ab- solute difpofai of wind and waters ; he had ejtablifhed all the ends of the earth. Agur, in the preceding verfe, had made a humble profeiTion of his igiforarice of the Holy ; of that Holy Ons. And, in this verfe, he charges ignorance of him upon all ; upon every ©ne: As Zophar had done before him ; Canfl thou by * Exod. xix. 18. j xxxiv. c. ; Gen. svil. 22.; xxxy. 1%. *6S A View of the by fear chin g find out God? can ft thou find out the Al- mighty unto ■perfection * ? Now this Holy One, the God exprefsly mentioned in the next words, is faid to have then had a Son ; a Son when he eflabliihed all the ends of the earthy and fo, from everiafting : Whofe Sonj'hip, whofe name as fuch, was of moil incomprehensible glery f. 6thly, That Jefus Chrift is the Son of God by eter- nal generation, appears from Micah v. 2. Lut thou, Bethlehem Ephraiab, though thou be little among the thoufands of Jndah ; yet out of thee Ji hall he come forth unto mc, that is to he Ruler in Ifrael: whofe goings forth have been from of old, from everlq/iiiig. Thefe words were an illuftfious prophecy about Chrift ; as exprefsly applied to him in the New Tef- tament J. A temporal and future coming forth was there afcribed to him ; a generation in time as a man, to be born in Bethlehem. But he had likewife a- fcribed to him a going forth from of old, from everlafi- ing. And, as there was no external manifeflation or operation of God from everiafting; thefe words can bear no other fenfe than that of his eternal generation : No other going forth can be imagined, as competent to him from everiafting. The coming forth unqueftion- ably denoted one fort of generation, which was to belong to him as man: And the going forth could only denote another fort of generation, which had belonged to him as the fecond Perfon of the divine Trinity, from everiafting. It can be no juft objection, againft this fenfe of the words; that goings forth are mentioned in the plural number. This manner of expreffion ferves to reprefent the incomprehenfible perfection and ex- cellency of his eternal generation. But it is no way inconfiftent with the unity of that generation, the real unity of his going forth : More than the mention of the * Job. xi. 74 -j- Judges xiii. 18. % Matth. il. 6. Covenant of Grace. 169 the multitude of God's mercies* and ot\\\%fcvcn fpi- rits *, — can be ineonfiftent with the unity of his mer- cy, and of the Holy Spirit ; when properly ferving to denote the incomprehenfible fulnefs and glory of both. jtbly, That Jefus Chrifl is the Son of God by eter- nal veneration, appears from 'John v. 18. Therefore the Jews fought the more to kill him, becaufe he not on- ly had broktn the Sabbath ; but f aid alfo that God was his Father, making him] elf equal with God : Corner- ed with John x. 33, 36. For a good work wejlone thee not, but for blafphemy ; becaufe that thou, being a man, makeft thyfelf God : — Say ye, thou blafpbemefi ; becaufe If aid I am the Son of God ? We find here that the Jews fought to kill Jefus For blafphemy. Wherein did the pretended blafphe- my lie? It lay in his making himf elf equal with God, making himfelf God* And upon what ground did they reckon that he had made himfelf fuch, or claim- ed his being fuch ? It was wholly on this ground ; that he faid that God was his Father y«--that he faid, I am the Son of God. Now, it is perfectly evident, — that Jefus fuftained the conftru&ion which they fo put upon what he had faid ; as perfectly juft : For the whole defence which he made, proceeded upon the acknowledged truth of that conftru&ion. But it is grofsly abfurd to imagine, — that it could ever have entered into any one of their minds* to put fuch a conduction upon hi> calling God his Fa- ther, and calling himfelf //j? Son of God ; if it had been underftood of his having become the Son of God, only about thirty-three years before. Never one of them imagined, concerning the claim of any fort of temporal Son/hip to God, — that it was the fame as a claim of equality with God,* a claim of being God. U They * Pfal. Li. r*s Rev. iv. 5.; v. 6, ijo A View of the They allowed a claim of fome fuch fonfhip as com- petent to angels i to the jirfi man, to many other men, to them/elves ; without ever pretending or dreading, that there was any blafphemy in the matter *. They knew that there could be but one God', and that therefore a being equal with God, was the fame as being God. They knew from the Scriptures of the Old Teftament, the do&rine of a Son/hip in the Godhead : And they knew, from thefe Scriptures, — that the divine Son, to be manifefted in the flefh* was the divine Saviour or Mefiiab prcmifed unto them. What therefore they charged upon Jefus as blafphemy, was plainly this ; that he gave himfelf out to be the Son of God in the fenfe which was pe- culiar to the promifed Mefiiab, whom they would not allow him to be. The juft conftrudion which they put upon his words, could thus have no confident fenfe ; but when underftood of him as the Son of God in the fame nature, by a Sonfhip infeparable from Godhead,— and therefore, as the Son of God from everlafting. Sthly, That Jefus Chrifl is the Son of God by eter* nal generation, appears from John x. 30. / and my father are one. There our Lord evidently fpoke of himfelf as the Son, when fpeaking of God as the Fa- ther ; affirming that he the Son, under the character of Sonfhip, was one with the Father, — one with him in nature or efTencc. But his humanity was not, could not be taken into the divine nature or effence* to an onenefs in Godhead; though wonderfully u* nited unto his divine perfon* He had therefore a character of Sonjhip, abitra&ing from his humanity, —in which he was one with the Father, the fame one God ; and muft have ever been fo, in that character* gthly, That Jefus Chrift is the Son of God by eter- nal * Job xxxviii. 7. j Luke iii. 38. ; Gen. vi. 2. ; Hof. i< 10. Covenant of Grace. 171 nal generation, appears from 1 John iv. 9, 10, 1 4. Godfent his only begotten Son, into the world, that w€ might live through him : — Sent his Son, to be the propir tiation for our fins : — The Father fent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. One may as well make any thing of Scripture, a- bufing it toferve any purpofe; as to pretend that the Son here mentioned as fent, — is mentioned as made the Son, in his being fent : Or that the fending of the Son did effectuate his generation as the Son. The Father fent the Son % his Son, his only begotten Son : And this language, unlefs it be reduced to an un- certain found, by explaining it inconfiftently with a- ny natural ufe of language, mull mean, — that the characters of Father and Son exifled before the fend- ing: that, as already bearing thefe characters, the §?ie did fend, and the other was fent : that therefore the Son who was fent, was fuch before he was fent,— the only begotten Son from ever lafling. An argument of the fame nature, lies in Heb. \ f 1, 1. God hath fpoken unto us by his Son, — by whom alfo he made the worlds. It would be a grofa contra- dicting of thefe words, — to fay that he was not the Son, when this vifible world was made by him; or till about four thoufand years afterwards. By the Son the Father made the worlds ; by him who was the Son before all worlds. lothly, That Jefus Chrift is the Sen of God by er Umal generation, appears from 1 John v. 7. There are Three that bear record in heaven ; the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghoft : And thefe Three are One. Thefe words contain the mod: eminent difplay of the myftery of the glorious Trinity. The fecond Perfon, indeed, is not here called the Son ; but the Word, the perfonal Word. Yet, of neceffity, he muft be here underftood as the Son, as the fecond Perfon under that character : For this is the only imaginable reafon, 172 A View cf the reafon, why the fir ft Perfon is here called the Father. And fo, without allowing the character of Son to have a place in the Trinity, as much as the character of Father ; and without allowing both thefe perfonal characters to be as ancient as the Trinity of perfons in the Godhead; all confident fenfe of thefe precious words mult be abolifhed. § II. The evidences which have been fet forth, are fufficient for eitablifhing the doctrine of the eternal generation of Jefus Chriit as the Son of God, He fre- quently called himfelf the Son cf man, as having be- come foin his incarnation. But wherever he is cal- led the Son of God, it is with refpect to his eternal generation. This Sonfhip is indeed fet forth in the iorm of a promife, as what mould afterwards be ; / will be to him a Father, and he jhall be to me a Son *, But This did no way fignify his beginning in time to be fuch ; it only reflected a glorious manifestation in time, of his being fuch : As, in Scripture, — a thing is faid to be made, when but eminently mani- fefted to be. So was Jefus, in and after his refur- rection, made both Lord and Chrijl -\ ; glorioufiy re- vealed in thefe characters, which he had borne as really before. So was the counfel of peace promifed to be, though it had been from everlaiting \. — 1 — And jefus Chrit is the Son of God as he hath be- come God-man ; his character of Sonfhip not exclud- ing, but including that confideration of him : His afiumption of humanity adds unto, but no way al- ters the itate of his divine perfonality. § III. The eternal generation of the Son of God is altogether inconceivable by us, as to the manner of it: Being wholly a matter of faith, that it is ; and no way a matter of reafon, as to how it is. The fi- nite * Heb. i, 5. f A&s. ii. 36. J Zech. yi. 13. Covenant of Grace. 17* nite mind can have no proper conception, but of fi- nite things; abfolutely incapable of fathoming what is infinite. And it is even abfurd, to deny the eter- nal genetation upbfl the ground of incomprehenii- blenefs : When one may as well deny, on the fame ground, the diftincl fubfifting of three Perfons in one Godhead: yea, the very being and perfections of God. And this eternal generation, which bears but a very faint allufion to the cafe of generation among men, cannot be brought into any proper compari- fon with it; as the divine perfections cannot be properly adjusted to any fliadows of them among creatures. The way of the fpirit, efpecially of the e- ternal Spirit, is not to be meafured or tried by the ilandard of flefn and blcod. — Yet this, of Jefus Chrift as the Son of God, is infinitely the moft pro- per and perfeel generation : As the Son is of an ab- folutely perfect likenefi to the Father * ; and not on- ly in a like nature, but in the very fame nature with him. § IV. The eternal generation of the Son of God, doth not at all mean his deriving Godhead from the Father. It only means a deriving of Perfonality from him, in the fame Godhead : And that not in any arbitrary way, or from the Father's will ; but na- turally, of the fame original and eternal neceflity which belongs to the divine exigence. Though he is not the Son of himfelf^ but of the Father ; yet he is God oihimfelf'. He is of the fame necefTarily-exift- ent, felf-exiltent, underived, independent, abfolute- ly eternal Godhead, — with God the Father. § V. The doctrine of eternal generation, doth ne- celTarily belong to the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. The * Hcb. i. 3. 174 A View of the This incomprehenfible and adorable my fiery, which is erTentiai to the Chriftian religion, is to be believed by us upon God's teftimony concerning himlelf: That there are three Perfons in the Godhead, of a mutual inbeing, without any compofition , undivid- ed and indivisible, in one infinite Being. They are called^r/2, feeond, and third Perfons, — not as terms of fuperiority, fubordination, or dependence; but only as denoting an order of fubfiftence, in the fame eternity of one independent exigence. And thefe glorious Perfons are diftinguilhed from each other by perfonal characters, of perfonal properties and relations. But, if there be no Father and Son in the Trinity, there can be no fuch diftinctions : No perfonal diftinctions at all, among three divine Per- ions in one elfence. And if ail perfonal diftinctions be loft, a Trinity of Perfons muft be given up with ; or it muft land in the diftinction of three divine Be- ings, — three Gods. As a well known author obferves : cc The Son- cc fhip of Chrift as a divine Perfon, and as by gene- " ration, even eternal generation, — is the diftin- cc guiftving criterion of the Chriftian religion, upon " which all the important doctrines of it depend. cc Without this, the doctrine, of the Trinity can ne- cc ver be fupported ; — without this, the diftinction " of Perfons in the Trinity can never be maintain- " ed : And, indeed without this, there is none at " all ; take away this, and all diftinction ceafes,— " it is all over with the doclrine of the Trinity" Dr. Gill's Body of Divinity, vol. i. p. 241. HEAD Covenant of Grace. 175 HEAD II. Of the Mediatory State of Jefus Cbrijl. His mediatory (late arifes from the mere gracious will or good pleafure of God ; of the Godhead,— not as in the perfon of the Son, but as in the perfon of the Father. With regard to the Son, it bears the form of his undertaking to do the Father's will; all of his own free grace, as called into that (late : He faith,—/ came down from heaven^ not to do mine own will ; but the will of him thatfent me *. For thft Father fent the Son to be the Saviour of the world f . And his one undertaking may be explained, in dif- ferent confederations of it. § I. The eternal Son, according to his Father's will, did undertake to be the one Mediator between God and a number of finful men J. The breach which fin had made, could admit of no immediate friendly intercourfe betwixt thefe parties ; there could be no repairing of it, but by a Mediator. Each of thefe finners needed a Mediator j And none of them can by any means redeem his brother ', nor give to God a ranfomfor him ||. Nor could the breach be repair- ed, by a mere perfuafive influence upon the offended party; it was indifpenfably neceffary that, on behalf of the offending party, the claims of his holinefs and juftice, and of his broken law, mould be fatisfied : Which no angels, more than men, could effectuate. The eternal Son alone was fit for being the one Me* diator; and this he undertook to be, from a love to the fons of men which paffeth knowledge. He * John vi. 38. f John iv. 14. $ 1 Tim. ii. 5. $ John xvii. 9. 14. || Pfal. xlix. 7. ij6 A View of the He undertook to be a mediatory Prophet : To come a light into the world; for giving knowledge of falvation unto his people *. He undertook to be a mediatory Priest : To make reconciliation for iniquity, by an atoning facrifice for their fin; and to bring in cverlafting right eoufnefs, by fulfilling all the righ- teoufnefs of the law for them j. And he undertook to be a mediatory King J : For fubduing his people to himfelf; letting up a kingdom of grace in the vi- fible Church, and in their fouls; ruling and defend- ing them; as alfo reitraining and conquering all his and their enemies. He thus undertook the whole employment of redeeming them by price, and pow- er; of bringing many fons unto glory ||. § II. The eternal Son according to his Father's will, did undertake to be God-man Mediator; to be* come Goi man'fejled in the flefh%. He was to be incarnate ; taking to himfelf a true body and a rea- fonable foul: Not as i perfon, diftinct from his own divine perfon ; but as a nature, aflumed unto a fub- fiftence in his divine perfon. He was thus to be a Mediator in the conftitution of his perfon, as necef- fary to his being fo by office; a middle perfon be- tween God and men, as being himfelf both God and man in one perfon. It was only in human na- ture, that he could fatisfy all the claims upon his people ; in a (late of ferving and fufTering. As man^ he was to be capable of this ; as God, he was ca- pable of bearing up the human nature in that eftate to the uttermoft: And as God-man in one perfon, — his work in that eftate was to be of infinite worth and efficacy; all-fufficient for the redemption of his people, to the highefl and everlafting glory of the Three-one-God. §ra. * John xii. 46. f Dan ix. 24. % Pfal. ii. 6. || Heb. in. 10. § 1 Tim. iii. 16. Covenant of Grace. 177 § III. The eternal Son, according to hi Fath i s will, did undertake to be a oV.tv.'v-McJ N s fueh, he was fubtlituted into the place of his pe< ; made anfwerable for all their debt of obedience 1 punifhment. He is thus the Head of the New Co* venant, the Covenant-head of all his people; hftiv 1 g them all reprefented before the Father, bj ^. w himfelf. As truly as they were reprefented h\ firir. man in the Covenant of Works, they are r fented by Chrifl in the Covenant of Grace. As truly as they finned in and fell with thejirfl man, they o- bey and (land in and with the fecond man, the Lord from heaven. He was to fatisfy all the claims of law and juftice upon them, in having all thefe transferred to him as their Surety. He was to be made under the law of the Covenant of Works in their place; to fulfil all the righteoufnefs of it for them: And he he was to be made under the curfe of that law, to bear all its effect upon himfelf for them. In this manner, he was to have them jufiified, and made heirs according to the hope of eternal life -f-. § IV. The eternal Son, according to his Father's will, did undertake to be a humbled Mediator J. He became a &/r*/y-Mediator as God-m.w, for coming down into a molt wonderful (fate of the deepeti humi- liation in human nature; as, in that (fate ofilv, he could execute his Suretifhip. He was to be hum- bled into the ft ate of a fervant for his people, un ler the commanding law of the Covenant of Works. He Was to be humbled into the Hate of a firmer, even made fin for them |], under the cuffing law ol the Co- venant of Works. He was thus to be laid under all the preceptive obligation of that law for them, as be- ing ilated under it in their flead; having their col- X le&ive * FI>b. vii. 22. f Tit. tit. -. J Phil. n. 7, 8. II 2 Cor. v. 21. ifB A View of the leclive name transferred to him accordingly * : And he was to be laid under all the penal obligation of that law for them, as having all their iniquities laid on him by imputation ; for fuftering the whole pe- nalty of death in their (lead. The firft article of Chrift's humiliation did lie ill his (looping fo amazingly low, as to affume human nature into himfelf. — Humiliation is of an equivocal fenfe. It fometimes only denotes a favourable or gracious condescendence toward an inferior; which, in (lead of demeaning, inhances the perfonal dignity of the fuperior. So the Lord is faid to humble hint- filf and to dwell with him that is of a humble fpirit-\. But this doth not mean any perfonal humiliation, or any real degrading of the party fo humbling himfelf; for it is competent to the High and Lofty One thai inha- biteth eternity. So the Lord Chrifl, as now continu- ing his affumption of human nature in heaven, is not thereby humbled, — in the fenfe of perfonal hu- miliation or degradation; but only in the fenfe of moil gracious condefcendence.-^-Yet his firft affump* tion of human nature, was a ftep of mod deep per- fonal humiliation. His afTumption of it was not one thing, and his being humbled in it (as fome have oddly imagined) another thing: For in his very a 61 of affuming it, not after or in confequence of his doing fo, he made himfelf (as to the flate of his perfon) of no reputation; and took upon him the form of a fervant J. He afTumed it in a flate of fervile fubje&ion to the law as a Covenant, under the finlefs infirmities of human nature, in a mod fihgular meannefs of ap- pearance, — under a mofl heavy load of imputed guilt, and under all the weight of the law-curfe. Such was the humbled flate of his humanity, of him- felf in that nature, as firft afTumed by him; but all that # Jfa. xlix. 3. f Pfal. cxiii. 6.; Ifa. lvli. 15. % Phil. ii. 7. Covenant r/" Grace. i*g that is now fully over for ever. His humanity is now exalted to the higheft glory which it could admit of; infinitely above all thefe circumflances of per^ humiliation. And his divine glory therein (hines forth without any vail upon it, as once ; but, a a moil raviming manner, concentrated to human eyes in his manhood: In a (late of glorious and ever- lading condescendence toward his redeemed kinf- men, as ever holding communion with them in their own nature, upon the throne of his glory. § V. The eternal Son, according to his Father's will, did undertake to be an exalted Mediator. I the Father r a fed him up from the dead, and gave him glory ; hath highly exalted him ; and jet him at his own right hand in the heavenly places *. According to this view, his exaltation belongs to the prom i [for y part of the Covenant of Grace; as being the juft reward and neceflary confequence of his work in his eftate of humiliation. — But he alfo, by his own power, nfe and revived ; he afcendsd up on high ; he fat down on the right hand of the Majefly on highf. And, ac- cording to this view, his exaltation belongs to his mediatory undertaking. When he had finifhed all his work of ferving and buffering in his human na- ture, all his work of Suretifmp in that nature, — fo that he had no more ufe for it, in fulfilling the con- dition of the Covenant of Grace ; yet he would not leave it to confume in the grave. He would have it laifed up, and exalted to a meft unparalleled glory in himfelf. lie would thus have his people, ratfed up together, and made to fit together in heavenly places, in his own perfon ; as ftilj inhabiting their nature, in their name J. He was to enter into heaven itfclf to appear in the prefence of God for them ; entering by * I Pet. i. 21.; Phil- ii- 9; Eph, i. to* f Rom. xir. 9; Eph. iv, 8. ; Heb. i. 3. j Eph. ii- 5. 180 A Vi*w of the by bis own bloc d, unto a continual prefentation of it before God on theii behalf, — and io, in the nature to which that blood belonged *. All this he undertook, concerning that nature in which he was to be humble.! : To have it exalted, fo as never more to be in a (late ot fubje&ion to the law. Through the courfe of his humiliation, that na- ture, he in that nature, was to be in a itate of fubjec- tipn to the law as a Covenant of Works. But, in and by his death, that nature, he in that nature, became for ever dead to the law in that form: and it for ever dead to him, in refpedt of any further exaction upon him : For he became the end of it, having gone to the uttermoft of both ferving and fuffering under it. And with regard to the law as only a rule of life, his human nature, he in that nature, was never under it for one moment. The law, as a covenant, could 1, ft had no natural c'aim upon him ; none but al- \\itx fupem antral, in the fupernatural constitution of the Covenant of Grace. And the law, as only a rule of life, could never have had any claim upon him at all. 'i hough it had a natural claim upon a human pcrfop, i could have none at all upon a human nature in a divine per fori. He was to have it exalted on the throne of his glory ; to a date of abfolute fupremacy above all law for ever ; fubfifting in his own perfon ab the fupreme Lawgiver. And it belonged to his un- dertaking, — that, in this exalted condition, he mould bring his many /Ins unto glory ; as the Captain of their falvation \, SECT. VII. Of the Objects of the Covenant ef Grace. § I. This Covenant was made, in an abfolute freedom of grace, on behalf of corrupt and curled tinners as the objects of it ; and thefe were only frn- ners Heb. ix. 12. 24. \ Ilcb. ii. 10. Covenant of Grace. iSi aers of mankind. Theft were the obje&s of it, not only as without fir cngth to hdp themfelves ; but as like wiie ungodly ', as enemies to God *. Some (peculations have been broached, by way of accounting for the grace of God toward fallen men rather than fallen angels; making certain apo- logies for the fin of mankind, as not of any equal gravatiori with that, of the finning angels. But inch fpeculations cannot confift with the abfolute fove- reignly and freedom of grace toward them, \ pretending to find fome reafon for it on their part ; though there was every reafon in them, why they might have been all left to perifh in their efiate o{ fin and mifery. Moreover, if that apologizing for them, more than for devils, c uld infer any thing in the prefent cafe ; it would infer an extending of grace equally to ail mankind. § II. Only fome of mankind-finners are object* of the Covenant of Grace. The whole human race was under God's eye, through all their generations, as all in the fame fallen efiate ; all equally finful and miferabie by nature, equally worthy of eternal death in hell, and equally under a natural impoiTibility of efcaping it. But, in the abfolute fovereignty of his grace, he diftinguifhed fome of them from all the reft ; fome whom he bath from the beginning chofen to falvation, before the world began f. Thefc are called God's eleel, according to the eleclion of grace \. There is a certain number of them ; fuch as cannot, and from eternity could not be increafed or diminifh- ed by fo much as one. They were chofen mod in- dividually, one by one: For the Lord knoweth then; that are his ; as their names are written in heaven, in the book of life ||. And not one of them can fail to obtain * Rom. v. 6. 10. f 2 ThefT. ii. 13. % Tit. i. 1. ; Rom. xi. 5. || 2 Tim. ii. 19.; Luke x. 20. ; Rev. xx. 15. i82 A View of the obtain what they were elected unto. They were e% lected unto a life of glory, in the eternal (late ; and likewife unto ail the means thereof in time, both outward and inward. All the parts and circumstances of their falvation were fettled in God's eternal pur- pofe ; as to the time and manner of their being brought into a (late of grace, and of their being car- ried forward in it to eternal glory, § III. Their being tingled out as the objecls of the. Covenant of Grace, was of mere grace: it did not proceed upon any consideration of what they were to be or do in time.—God certainly forefaw whatever they would be and do, preferably to ail others. He forefaw that they would believe, repent, and walk in nevynefs of life. But he did not forefee that they would do. fo, by an exercife of their own free wills and natural abilities. He forefaw it, in his own de- termination to make them fuch perfons; to work a true faith in them, and to give repentance unto, them, — and to quicken them, raifmg them up from their fpiritual death in trefpafTes and fins. Their faith, repentance, and holy life — was therefore no. reafon why they were elected ; but are only parts of the falvation unto which they were elected : They were originally objects of the Covenant of Grace confidered zsfinners, as ungodly, as enemies to God 5 by nature the children of wrath > even as others *. § IV. Thefe objects of the Covenant of Grace were, by their election, Itated in Chrifl ; God having chofen them in him, before the foundation of the world, that they fhould be holy and without blame before him in love f . They were thus given to him ; as he faith to the Father, — thine they were, and thou gav eft them me: % Afts r. 31. ; Eph. if. 3. 5. 8. f Eph. i. 4. Covenant of Grace. i8< me*, thrift was the Father's Elecl\: But though lie is of infinite dignity above them, — being the head of the body, that in all things he might have the pre- eminence ; yet his election was fubordinated to theirs, as a mean to the end. He was not the caufe of their election ; he did not procure it, by any interpofal or undertaking for them. They were elected to e- ternal life, of abfolutely free grace ; his election was the great ordinance of God, for effectuating the purpofe of their election : And the act of free grace, by which they were elected, was an act giving them to him for that purpofe ; ftating them in him as their Covenant-head, unto a future being in him by a myftical union with him; § V. Jefus Chrift mod gracioufly accepted the gift which was thus made of them to him, for all the purpofes thereof; as he faith to the Father concerning them, — ail mine are thine, and thine are mine J. He, as it were, took down all their names in a book, to be anfwerable for each of them ; their names are written in the Lamb's book of life ||. Not one of their names have been, or can ever be blotted out of that book. He fometimes lets them fee their names in it now, when he has brought them unto himfelf : And they will all be reading their names in that book, with raptures of admiration and praife, through all eter- nity. SECT. VIII. Of the Condition of the Covenant of Grace. § T. The word condition is fometimes ufed very improperly, to denote the mere connection of one thing with another ; or with that of which it is only a * John xvii. 6. f Ife. xlii. I. % John xvii. to* || Rev, xiii. 8. ; xxi. 27* 184 A View of the a mean or inftrument. So, faith has been called a condition of pardon and acceptance in j unification; of a laving intereft in Cbrift, or of falvation through him : But to call faith the condition of the Cove- nant of Grace, is a downright abufe of the word ; as well as a perveriion of the doctrine of that Cove- nant. The word in its proper fenfe, and as ufed in the prefent cafe, — denotes that which in its own na- ture, or at lead by paction, is meritorious of a pro- mifed benefit ; and is the proper ground of a tide to the fame. So, perfect obedience was the proper condition of the Covenant of Works ; to be meri- torious of eternal life : Not indeed by any natural or intrinfc merit of that obedience, but by the paction or agreement which God condefeended to make with the firft man. § II. The condition of the Covenant of Grace, iri the very nature of the thing, could be pe*formable only by the Head of that Covenant ; by the glorious Undertaker in it, and Surety of it: A condition which was to lie in his full performance of his under- taking, as to be made under the law. The condi- tion of the Covenant of Works, as to Which the fir ft man foon failed, was transferred unto and under- taken by him; with the high addition, of his hav- ing to make full i ads faction for the breach of that Co- venant. In xhzjirjl place, he was to prefent un-» to the law of that Covenant, as the reprefenting Head of a41 his people, — the human nature^ reftored unto a (late of perfect conformity to that law in his own perfon ; holy, harmlefs, undefiled, feparate from fvmers *. In the next place, he was to fulfil the whole righteoufnefs of that law in this holy nature, by a life of perfect conformity to its preceptive part; in the name and on the behalf of all his people, bring- ing * Hcb. vii. 2d Covenant of Grace. iS mg in evcrlafting righteoufnefs for them *. And fi- nally, he was to take upon himfelf, for them, the whole penalty of that law: Thus to make reconcilia- tion for iniquity*; a full fatisfaction and atone- ment for all their fin, putting it away by the facrifice of himfelf f . § III. This condition, as to be fulfilled by him, was to be meritorious of all bleffings for his people unto eternal life. It was to be lb, by paclion cjr co- venant-agreement : But it was to be fo, likewife, by an intrinfic merit in its own nature. — lie was not, like the hrft Covenant-head, to have any thing ado with the law for himfelf. His righteoufnels, though wrought out under the law, was yet to be without the law I ; without, beyond, above all its natural claim, as it could have no fuch claim upon him. He owed nothing to it for himfelf, but only for his peo- ple : owing all for them, by 2.fuper natural confliru- tion. And, from the infinite dignity of his perfon as God-man, his whole performance under the law could not but be of infinite dignity : His atonement and righteoufnefs were to be of infinite value and merit in their nature, for both putting away fin and purchaiing eternal life on behalf of all his people ; in his becoming, to them, the end of the law for righ- teoufnefs ||. To this one condition of the Covenant of Grace, and to this only, all merit belongs, in the matter of our falvation. And to afcribe any fort of merit, a- ny deferving of good from God, to any thing that either finners or faints can do, — is a grofs indigni- ty to Jefus Cfirift, a robbing him of his glorv, a virtual nullifying of the New Covenant. For all the bieflings of grace and glory, we rauft be wholly in- Y debted # Dan. ix. 25. * H-b. ix. 26. 1 Rom. iii. SI. [I Rom. x. 4. i86 A View f the debted to him ; to his fulfilled Condition of the Co^ venant of Grace. SECT. IX. Of the Promifes of the Covenant of Grace. As the condition of the Covenant of Grace is the Undertaker 's part, fo the promifes are the Maker's part of it ; the part of God the Father in that Covenant* And, § I. All the promifes of the Covenant are com- prehended in one great promife : This is the promifc that he hath promifc d, us, even eternal life *. And this doth not merely refpect the eternal life of glory* as to be enjoyed in heaven through eternity : it alfo reipects all the bleffings of grace to be enjoyed in time, as the beginnings of that life ; according to Chrift's declaration concerning his true difciples in their prefent ftate, / give unto them eternal life f . The great promife of erernal life, comprehends in it exceeding great and precious promifes \ ; which are laid out to all the members of the vifible Church, in the holy Scriptures. The leading article of thefe, is the promife of giving the Hely Spirit to all the ob- jects of the Covenant of Grace > in his manifold o- perations, graces and influences : More efpecially, as the fbirit of faith ||. And the promifes which were thus to take effect upon them were many, — but are generally reducible to their effectual calling, their juitiftcation, their adoption, their fanctifica- ticn ; with ailurance of God's love, peace of con- fcience, joy in the Holy Ghoft, increafe of grace, and perfeverance therein to the end: As alfo, the perfected * i John ii. 25. f John x. 28. % 2 Pet. i. 4. |] Ezck. xxxvi. 26, 27.; 2 Cor. iv. 13. Covenant of Gr.\. 187 perfected holinefs and glorification of their death; with the refurreciion of their bo< tin lad day, and their being then openly a< I and acquitted,— unto a being made perfi in a full enjoying of God to all eternity. 1 v< -1 with regard to their outward condition in this world, the great and precious promifes extend to all the Lord fees good and ncceflary tor them ; a N Covenant right to all their common benefit! in id -a blefiing upon their trials: Withprote&ion in m, or fupport under, or deliverance out of temporal evils; according as the Lord mould wifely order all things to work together for their good. § II. Many of thefe promifes, which were to be actively received by them, were made to them from e- ternity ; but made to them in Cbrift^ as their New- Covenant Head, Seeing they did not then exift, but he did ; thefe promifes could not be made to them immediately, or in their own perfons: They were all made to them in him, and immediately to him as their representative ; this grace was given m in Chrift Jefus, before the world began *. As he was to be the glorious Head of the body, thefe promifes were to take effect through him upon all the mem- bers of it. And they were to receive all thefe, on- ly in a ftate of myftical union with him ; he being the primary recipient of all the promifes. Their re- ceiving of all was to be in receiving him, and red- ing upon him for fajvation ; receiving Kim, unto a receiving of all in and with him : All the promifes of God being in him yea, and in him amen ; unto the glo- ry of God by us |. § III. There were fome of thefe promifes more e- fpecially made to Chriji concerning them: Promjfea containing 2 Tim. i. 9. t 2 Cor. i. 20. 188 A View of the containing the Father's engagement to him on behalf of his fpiritual feed ; as to the effect of which; they were to to be pajfive. It was infured, that in Chrift they fhoidd all be made alive ; and that his feed JJjould endure for ever*. All things were mod particularly and unalterably fettled in thefe promifes to him, concerning the time and manner cf their being effec- tually called or born again; and all the variety of following difpenfations toward them. Whatever prove to be the gracious events in thefe matters, mult be confidered as having been fo fettled in promifes to Chrift; for all muft belong to the Father' v %faiihfulnefs\ with him f. And, \ft, The precife time of the new birth of each, or of their being brought to Chrift and united with hirn a was fixed ; as to the moment of their natural lives in which it fhould take place. There was to be great variety here, according to the parable of the labour- ers fent into the vineyard ; fome early in the morning, fome about the third hour, fome about the fixth and ninth hour, and fome about the eleventh hour j. The inbringiiig of Turners to Chrift is thus at very differ- ent times of their life in this world, yet absolutely fixed to fome time of it; but, generally, in its more early periods. And, till that time, they were not only to be under the common care of Providence, as to their prefervation and natural enjoyments ; but were to be fecretly under a fpecial and gracious care thereof, though 11 ill in themfelves children of wrath even as others : And they were likewife to be preferv- ed from falling into thaty^Vz which is unto death ||. idly, The precife manner was fixed, according to which thev mould be brought to Chrift in their feve- ral times. . Some were to be firft laid under an effi- cacy of the law upon their consciences, for a fhorter or * l Cor. xv. 22. ; Pfal. lxxxfx. 3^. f Pfal. lxxxix. 24. % Matth. xx. 1, — 7. || Matth. xii. 31, 32. ; 1 John v. 16. Covenant of Grace. or longer time; reducing them to diftrcfs of foul, in various degrees, unto a defpairing in tnemfelves : Before being brought off from all ways of eftablifli- ing their own righteoufnefs, by a jfupernatural ma- nifeftation of the Surety-righteoufnefs to their fouls ; in which they mould find a fweet and fatisfying red. So it was with Pan!, when under the work of the law on his confcience ; as it brought him into a death of all the confidence and hope with which he had pleaf- ed himfelf in his unregenerate ftate*. — But others were to be dealt with in a more foft and fummary manner ; under a difcovery to them of their danger and relief, as all at once. So it was with Lydia ; whofe heart the Lord opened at once, to attend unto the things which me heard fpoken concerning Jefus Chrift j'. — The Lord deals mo ft fovereignly in thefe. cafes. But the dirt relies and terrors with which fome are previoufly exercifed, have nothing good in their nature ; though the Lord fovereignly meafurcs out and orders them unto good : For thefe are never to be considered as any fort of atonement or amends to God for their fin ; all this lying wholly in the aton- ing facrifice of Jefus Chrift. 3^//y, As there were to be great varieties, with re- gard to the internal fecrecy or diftinclnefs of the manner in which fmners were to be brought to Chrift ; fo likewife, in the courfe of following difpenfations toward them. Their gracious ftate was not defi^n- ed for taking them out of their civil ftations ; < man wherein he is calledy muft therein abide with Q And they were to have great diverfities meafured out to them/ of providential favours and frowns ; fome to be fignalized by heavy trials, wants and fufferings. But efpecially, they were to be varioufly diftihguiflved as to their gracious ftate, — into children, young men, znd fathers; fome weak, fome ftrong,— every one having * Rem. vil. 9. f A&ixvi. 14. t iCor.tn. 2.;. 190 A View of the having grace given unto them, according to. the meafure of the gift of Ch rift * : And thus, through many dif- ferences of attainment in gracious experiences and exercifes, they were to be preferved and carried for- ward in their courfe toward the heavenly Canaan ; fo as to be fafely brought, at the end of their times, to a ftate of perfection in that everlafting reft. All thefe matters were mofl particularly and unal- terably fettled, by promifes to Chrift concerning them ; promifes of that Covenant which is ordered in all t Vings and Jure j-. § IV. There were promifes peculiar to Chrift him- idf ; refpecling his own perfon, in his eftates of both humiliation and exaltation. According to thefe pro-* mifes, the Father and Spirit were engaged to concur with him ; as to the qualifying and ftrengthening of his manhood, in Lis humbled eftate : His human na- ture was not to fee corruption in the grave, but foon to be glorioufly raffed up : He was to have a full ac- ceptance, as having fmifhed his Surety-work in his death ; j'tflifed from all the charges which had been laid againft him, ao made under the lawi And he was to he exalted in a (rate of glorious dominion, as the Head of his Church, and over all things for his CLwvch^-appoi/iicd heir of all things ; with an ever-, lading victory and triumph, in his glorified huma-r nity, over all his enemies t. But all thefe promifes were made to him not pro-, perly for himfelf; they were made to him in a pub- lic capacity, as the Covenant-head of his people, — « all for their benefit, in and through him. As they were to be partakers of all his fervice and fufTering, in his humiliation ; fo they were to be partakers of his * 1 John ii. 13. ; Eph. iv. 7. ■{• 2 Sam. xxiii. 5. J, Pfal. Ixxx'x. Si. 1 Ifa. xi. 2. ; Pfal. xvi. 10. ; 1 Tim. iii. 16. ; Eph. ii. 21, 22.} Heb. i. 2.; Pfal. ex. 1. Covenant of Grace. 191 his life in his refurreclion and exaltation, of his vic- tory and triumph, of his eternal glory in their na- ture as their Head. § V. All the promifes of the New-Covenant were absolutely and immediately from the mere grace^ the Sovereign good pleafure of God ; of the Godhead in the perfon of the Father. The fulfilling of them was to proceed on ChriiVs undertaking and fulfilling the condition of that Covenant ; but the making of them did no way proceed upon that ground. And all the promifes peculiar to Chrift, with all the promifes which were made to him concerning his people, — were all fubordinate and fubfervient to thofe which were made to them in him. The divine glory is the chief end of the New-Covenant falvation ; but the mediatory glory belongs to the means of that falva-* tion, according to the Sovereignty of the grace of God : As hath been fomewhat explained in the third fe&ion of this period* SECT. X* Of the End of the Covenant of Grace* § I. The only wife God, of whom and through whom and to whom are ail things, — hath purpofed all the means which he ufes, toward ends mod wor- thy of himfelf. His purpofes of thefe means, and his intentions thereby, are all one in his infinite mind; but our finite minds are warranted to take up the fame in diftinguifhed confiderations, according to the nature of the things. He purpofed to create the world, for manifefting the glory of his eternal power and Godhead ; as the infinite and felf-exiftent Being, producing all the varieties of finite things out of no- thing. He purpofed to permit the fall of mankind in 192 A View of the in the firft man, for manifefting the glory of his ab~ iblute fovereignty ; and of abfolute infallibility, as being his incommunicable prerogative. And all his purpofes concerning fallen creatures, both angelic and human, were for the further manifeftation of all his other glorious perfections. § II. The J ubor din ate end of the Covenant of Grace, is the everlafting falvation of all thofe who were cho- fen to be the objects of it. The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, mod freely purpofed their falvation from fin and mifery ; unto a far higher (late of holinefs and happinefs than, that from which the firft man fell, and than there was any profped of according to the Covenant of Works; And, in h:*s manifold wifdom, he provided for the effectuating of all that falvation ; by the eftablifhment of the Co- venant of Grace. All the particular means thereof, outward and inward, meritorious and effective* fpe- cial and common, — were provided and ordered in that Covenant ; beyond all portability of failure, as to either the means or the effect. And all things in the courfe of providence toward them, were fettled into a ftate of fubferviency to that fubordinate end of the Covenant of Grace concerning them. § III. The higheft end of the Covenant of Grace, is the glory of abfolutely free grace in the falvation of its objects. All is to the praife of the glory of his grace*. Heaven was thus to be filled for ever, with the glory of free grace toward the redeemed from a- mong men: And each of thefe was to be a wonder to himfelf through eternity, as to how he came to be there rather than in the deeps of hell; incapable of / finding any reafon for it but in the mere good plea- fur e * Eph. 1. 6. Covenant of Grace. 193 fere of God, — {h&tfb it fee mod good in bis Jtgbt % that " God would have it fo." At the fame time, this glory of the grace of God was to be amazingly heightened ; by having ail its effect in a manner infinitely glorifying to trie fuftice of God: As divine juftice, in pleading the caufe of God againfl fin, could never come to a full <. [\\x\ in hell; but was to do fo in the crofs of Chrift, regard to all the fins of the redeemed. Thefe muit therefore have to adore the free grace of God. in looking up for ever to the glorious Redeemer upon his throne ; faying, — thou waft ftain, and haft re- deemed us to God by blood ** BrUJij:i^tpi_-{rtorii£nijrz»;JTm^ ..fccti rjrai rymi rjrn tjrii tjxir nnx 'I* 1 " 1 , nm j could not bear any private character in his incarna- tion. He therefore prefented his holy human nature to the law of the Covenant of Works, in the name and place of his people ; as a full anfwer to the de- mand which that law had upon them, for holinefs of nature as well as of life, A fulfilling of the righ* teoufnefs of that law, in active obedience, could only proceed from a perfect holinefs of nature : And his engagement to fulfil that righteoufnefs for his peo- ple, could be admitted of, — only upon his dating himfelf in their name and place, as of a perfect per- ianal conformity to the law in their nature. Art. II. Of the Service of Jcfus Chri/l. § I. Jefus Chrifl was made under the law * ; ac- cording to that form of it as a Covenant of Works, in which all men are naturally fubje&ed to its abfo- lute dominion : But he was made i'o, by a gracious and fupernatural conftitution. He was, in a mod diftinguifhed fenfe, the Father's fervant under that law; and the Father acknowledged him to be, in a fupereminent manner, his righteous Servant f. He had to fay to the Father, in the fulled fenfe of the words, — -/ delight to do thy will, my God; yea, thy law is within my heart \ : And this perfect holinefs of his nature, did iflue in a perfect holinefs of life. He lived in a private manner, about thirty years ; and then about three years and an half in a public mini- (try: During all which time, he was harmlefs and unde filed ; he did no Jin, neither was guile fund in his mouth ||. On the contrary, he had this true and no- ble account to give of himfelf, — My meat it to do the will of him that fent me 9 and to finijh his work ; I do always thofe things that pleafe him: And he defied his mod malicious enemies, to convince him of A a He * Gal. iv. 4. f If*, xlii. 1. ; lii. 13. ; jiii. II. % P&l. «L 8. 1| 1 Pet. i'i. 22. § John iv. 34. ; viii. 29, 46. 202 A View of the He never offended in one point, by way of commif- ilon or omiilion, through all his courfe. This man, whofe name is Wondtrful, is the only man who ever fpent a life on earth in a perfect con- formity to the law; which he did, from his being not a mere man. And he made mod ftriking difplays of his Godhead, amid ft all the meannefs of his ap- pearance in going through his fervice; by the doc- trines which he taught, as well as by the many mi- racles which he wrought. The generality of thofe among whom he then converfed had no apprehenfion, and his difciples had but a very faint apprehenfion* of who he really was : Yet he was all along the fame perfon that he afterwards appeared to be. There would have been nothing beyond the truth, when pointing him out through the courfe of his humilia- tion and on the crofs, had it been then faid ; There is God in our nature! -One who is the image of the invifible God, the fir ft -born of every creature : For by him were all things created that are in heaven, and that are in earth, viftble and invifible ; whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers : All things were created by him, and for him: And he is be- fore all things, and by him all things confift *. What a wonderful Perfon, come dewn into a mod abafed' date of fervice and fuffering 1 At the very time when he hid not his face from Jha?ne and f pitting, he had to fay ; at my rebuke I dry tip the fea, I make the rivers a wildernefs ; I clothe the heavens with blacknefs, and I make fackcloth their covering |. § II. The fervice performed by Jefus Chrift under the law, is of a public nature : It was performed by him as a Surety-pried for his people ; as the Plead of the New Covenant. Having taken their nature into his own perfon, he had their name put upon him; * Col. i. 15, 16, 17. I Ifa. 1. 2, 3, f. Covenant of Crack. k>j him ; dating him in their place, with regard to that fervice : For the Father faid to him, Thou art wv fervant, Ifrael, in whom I will be glorified*. He was engaged by the Covenant of Grace to repair the breach of the Covenant of Works, in the name and place of his people ; to fulfil all the righteoufnefs of it for them, as their new ground of title to eter- nal life. He was accordingly lent, to bring in ever- lafling righteoufnefs f ; by a complete fervice in their (lead, under the law of that Covenant: To work out this righteoufnefs for being made theirs^ in a iree gift of it unto them J. And, by that fervice, he actually became the end of the law for righteoufnefs ; to every one that believeth ||. The righteoufnefs of his life, is that robs of righteoufnefs with which they are covered in their juftification §. It is not merely the fufferings, the death, the blood of Ghrift, — that a guilty finner mud depend upon, for juftification before God. This fatisfaclory exercife of his priefthood is the ground of delive- rance from the penalty or curfe of the law ; the ground of pardon as to all bypaft breaches of it, original and aclual. But this alone would leave^ the finner (till under the law of the Covenant of Works, for the time to come ; and new breaches of it would bring him again into condemnation, making him liable as formerly to eternal death. — It i^ therefore neceflfary likewife, that the perlbn have a righteoufnefs of full and final conformity to the pre- ceptive part of the Covenant of Works ; upon which he may be delivered from all fubjc&ion to that law as a Covenant, for the time to come : Never to have any more concern with it as a Covenant-law; requir- ing perfed obedience for life, and curfing for eve- ry difobedience. Such a righteoufnefs the perfon mull: * Ifa. xllx. 3. t Dan.ix. 24. * Ifa. Uf. r?' Rom. v. 17. II Horn. x. 4. § V-U*. ">■ 304 A View of the muft have, meritorious of eternal glory; and of grace, for enabling him to live in an acceptable con- formity to the law as a rule of life. And this is the righteoufnefs of Chrift's complete fervice, under the law of the Covenant of Works. As by the fa- ihfaclory righteoufnefs in the death of Chrift, we ob- tain deliverance from condemnation to eternal death in hell ; fo, by the meritorious righteoufnefs in the life of Chrift, we obtain a title to eternal life in hea- ven : And all this is but one indivifible righteouf- nefs ; to be depended upon for one indivifible falva- tion, from hell to heaven. § III. The fervice performed by Jefus Chrift un-, der the law, was wholly of a public nature ; wholly for his people, no way for himfelf. It has been faid, — that " the human nature of " Chrift, being a creature, owed obedience to God " in virtue of its creation :" That cc obedience to " the natural law was due by the man Chrift, by a " natural tie :" That " Chriit was indeed a crea- cc ture, but holy; under the Covenant of Works for " himfelf:" And " that Chrift is under the law, as. " a rule of holinefs, for ever." However good and great the men were who have (tumbled into this doctrine, from not examining the real import and neceffary confequences of it ; yet the doclrine itfelf is quite infufrerable. — No doubt, a human perfon owes obedience to God in virtue of its creation ; obedience to the natural law is incum- bent upon every human perfon, by a natural tie. But the human nature of Chrift was not a perfon; it had never any diftinct exiftence as a rational a- gent ; it never could have any agency, but as fub- fifting in the perfon of the eternal Son. A human nature, not conftituting a perfon^ was an object al- together fupcrnatural ; and could not be an object pf Covenant of Grace* »oj of any natural tie, according to any principle either reafon or revelation. The man Chrift, perfon God-man, was gracioufiy conftituted an object of the moral law ; but his human nature could not be fo : For it was not, in and by itfelf, a moral a- gent ; it had no capacity, diftinct from the perfon of the eternal Son, of either obligation or obedi- ence. The law's natural claim is neccffarily confin- ed to human perfons, who alone are its natural ob- jects, juftifying or condemning of a human nature ■, which is not a perfonal agent, and fo not an object of legal claim, — is even a matter of grofs abfurdity. Moreover, if Chrift obeyed the law in a private character, as under the Covenant of Works for himfelf; then his active obedience muft have been either wholly, or but partly of that nature. If whol- ly fo, if he fulfilled the righteoufnefs of the law only for himfelf; then the doctrine of his Surety-righte- oufneis for his people, in the courfe of his active obedience, comes to be abolifhed. — If it be faid, that his obeying of the law was but partly for him- felf, then a march ought to be fixed between his private and public obedience ; which yet is impof- fible. If he had any obedience to yield for himfelf, he muft have had all his obedience to yield for him- felf; becaufe the law of the Covenant of Works, if it had any fuch claim upon him, could claim no- thing fhort of perfection. And fo (till, the doctrine of his Surety-righteoufnefs, in his active obedience, comes to be quite abolifhed ; that obedience which he yielded would be excluded from all concern in the ground of our juftification. And the confequence goes ftill deeper. For, it Chrift owed perfect obedience for himfelf; then all his holy fubmiflion to providential difpenfations con- cerning him, — to forrows and griefs, trials, fuffer- ings and death ; all this muft have belonged to his perfect 2o6 A View of the perfect obedience for himfelf, for it could not other? wife have been perfect : And fo, nothing would be left for us but mere example ',-^-in both the life and death of Chrift ; no ground at all for our juftifica- tion, and consequently no falvation. It is likewife a mocking tenet, — that u Chrift is C£ under the law, as a rule of holinefs, for ever." His human nature, as fuch, was never under it ; either as a Covenant-law, or as a rule of holinefs. His perfon, God-man was under it for his people, as a Covenant-law ; which he ceafed to be in his death : And feeing his perfon, in his exalted Hate, is infinite- ly high above all law ; it is moll abfurd to reprefent his human nature, in that ftate, as under any law, — while that nature, as fuch, could never be under any. The fum of all is, — That Chrift performed a fer- vice under the law, no way in a private, but wholly in a public character ; no way for himfelf, but whol- ly for his people : And fo his whole righteoufnefs, in that fervice, belongs to the ground of their juftifi- cation. — The doctrine here taught, as it is certainly true, is of the greatefl importance to the honour of Chrift and the faith of Chriftians ; fo that one can- not well maintain it in too firm a tone. Art. III. Of the Sufferings ofjefus Chrijl. §. I. The exercife of Chrift's priefthood, though comprehending his fervice, did lie peculiarly in his fufferings :. For, in this fatisfaclory exercife of it, he was moft directly the Antitype of the facrificing priefts and facrifices under the law. It is alfo to be confidered, — that the* fatisfaclory exercife of his priefthood was previous and funda- mental, in the order of nature, to the meritorious ex- ercife of it. For the bleflings of life could not be beftowed upon his people as curfed, or as judicially dead Covenant of Grace:. 207 dead under the curfe of the law : The purchafe of thefe bleflings for them by his fervice, did therefore fuppofe a relief for them from the fentence of the law-curfe, by his fufferings ; that they might be fav- ed from fin, as faved from wrath. At the fame time, his meriiori-ous fervice muft be confidered as running through all his f athf actor y fufferings ; though thefe be diilind, they cannot be divided. For his fuffer- ings could not be fatisfactory as merely penal, or without being likewife obediential; and he became obe- dient unto death * : So that all his penal fufferings, confidered as obediential, did belong to his meritorious fervice. § TI. The fufferings of Chrifl: were mofr. juft, as they were tox fins. He was, in himfelf, without fin : But he hath once fuffered for fins, the jufi for the un- jufl |. He had all the fins of all his people made his fins, by imputation. They have therefore to fay con- cerning him, His ownfelf bare our fins in his own body on the tree: The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all : Surely he hath born our griefs and carried our forrows ; he ivas wounded for our tranfgreffions, he was bruifed for our iniquities : — All this they have to fay concerning him \ as the Lord hath faid, For the tranfgreffion of my people was he flricken J. They have likewife to fay, — He hath made him to be fin for us, who knew no fin; that we might be made the rlghteouf- nefs of God in him || : We are made perfectly righte- ous before God in him, by the imputation of his righteoufnefs to us 5 from his having been made per- fectly fmful for us, by the imputation of our fin to him. He could not fuffer/cr them, in their place, — bur as fuffering/tfr their fins 9 on that account. All their fins * Phil. ii. 8. f 1 Pet. Hi. 18. t « Pet. ii. 24 ; Ifa. lui. 4 ; 5, 6, ?. || iCcr. v. 21. 2o8 A View of the fins were judicially imputed to him in refpect of guilty or of punifhablenefs for the fame : He was charged with all their guilt, unto a fuffering of all the wrath and curfe of God due to them for fin ; as he flood in their nature, and in their place* under the law. — It doth not confift with common fenfe, to fpeak of imputing the punijhment of their fin to him : For punifnrnent cannot be a matter of imputation, it is only a matter of infliction ; and it mult iuppofe guil- tinefs. But all their fin, as to guiitinefs or defert of punifhment, was really imputed to him ; fo that this was the true and juft reafon of ail his fufferings. § III. The fufferings of Chrift did run through all his fervice ; afi the courfe of his life in this world. — • He fuffered at his birth in a manger, there being no room for him in the inn. He had to be foon carried away by flight, from the cruelty of Herod feeking his life. He was tempted by the devil, through a fad of forty days in the wildernefs. — He was all a- f long a man of for rows and acquainted with grief \ de- ep fed and rejected of men. And it was a matter of inparalleled fuffering, — for fuch a wonderful Perfon to live among men on earth, in the form of a fer- vant. But his fufferings came to their greateft height, at the clofe of his miniftry. — He fuffered in the garden, the night before his death : As he there began to be amazed, and to be very heavy; faying,— My foul is exceeding for rowful even unto death i And being in a- gony — his fweat was as it were great drops of blood, falling down to the ground. After being apprehend- ed in the garden, he was brought into the high- prieft's houfe ; where the men that held him mocked him, and fmote him : And when they had blindfolded him, they ftruck him on the face : Some did f pit in his face, and buffeted him y and otbcn fmote him with the palfns Covenant 6/ Grace. ^QQ palms of their bunds, lie was then brought to flan J as a criminal, before a heathen judge ; when lie fur- ther endured moit cruel mockings : He was fcourged^ had a crown cf thorns put upon bis bead 9 was /pit upon, fm'Uten on the head; and crucified, betwixt two mal-j- faclors. — This extraordinary courie of fufiering by fuch an extraordinary Perfon, is let forth at large in the books of the Evangelilts ; and fuch as are ordi- narily acquainted with thefe, will need no particular references. § IV. It was neceflary that the fufferings of Chrid fhould be unto death. This was the penalty of the broken law, under which he was made. From the infallibility of the glorious Undertaker, the Cove j nant of Grace could have no penalty annexed to it in cafe of failure: But the penalty annexed to the Co- venant of Works was engrofled in the Covenant of Grace ; to be executed upon Chrid, as an ellential part of the condition of this Covenant. And that penalty he had to undergo in ail its extent, as to the matter of the thing. Spiritual death, which is fin as well as punimment, was not competent to him : And any eft eel: of the penalty, in that point, was fully an- ticipated by the perfect holinels of his human na- ture. Bodily death was competent to him, and un- dergone by him; in diiiblving the union betwixt his human foul and body, though not betwixt his hu- man and divine natures. That eternal death, which all mankind are naturally fubje&ed unto, derives its eternity from their finite natures; as the curfe of the law can never have a finifhed effect upon them: But it got a full effect upon Chrift in his death, from his infinite capacity for bearing it; that curfe was ex- haufted upon him, io that he got through it on the crofs. And his obedience could not be finHhed, but as it B b came 2io A View of the came to iffuein his fubmitting to all the death which could be inflicted upon him according to the law- curfe. Without this, all his previous obedience mufl have gone for nothing; as to any faving bene- fit for finners. He faid, — Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die -, it abide th (done ; but if it die, it bringeih forth much fruit; — and I, if I be lifted uf> from the earthy will draw all men unto me * : By whicii he intimated the abfolute neceffity of his death, as lifted up on the crofs ; in order to his having a fpi- ritual feed of a faved people, among finners of all forts. His obedience as unto death, and only as brought to this iflue, was to be a fuificient ground tor the deliverance of his people from condemnation; and meritorious of grace for their fan&ification, un- to eternal life. § V. The fufferings of Chrifl were carried to the uttermoft extremity of diftrefsful pain ; infinitely be- yond that of any other fufferings in this world, and even of any that can take place in hell through all eternity. — Such of them as were inflicted on his bo- dy by Jews and Romans, under the influence of Satan, were fmgularly great ; yet by far the fmallefl par? of his fufferings. Thefe did principally confift in the agonies of his foul : When he began to be amazed and exceeding forrowful, in a profufe and bloody fvveat ; reprefenting in mod earneft prayer, once aiid again, and a third time, the finlefs horror of his human nature — at the cup which the Father had given him to drink. All the waves and billows of divine vengeance were then going over him, and fully penetrated his foul : He then drank out the whole contents of that cup of wrath which was put into his hand. The painful effect which the law- curie had then upon Chrift ; is no way imaginary ; it * Julia xiL 241 z 2 - Covenant of Works. 2 1 1 (It, was infinitely more real than the torments of wicked men and devils in hell : Becaufc that effeQ was infinitely complete on him, but never can be fo on them. There is indeed an overwhelming my (lo- ry in this cafe : That the only begotten and beloved Son of God, dill continuing fuch, could have Cof- fered in this manner; that he could, in his huma- nity, have undergone the fulled efficacy of God's wrath and curfe. But fuch was really the cafe ; no- thing was abated to him, of the punimment which all the fins of his people deferved : He was made a curfe for them, moll curfed in their place ; and it pleafed the Lord to bruife him, he Lath put him U grief*. He was made to cry out upon the crofs,—- My God, my God, why hafl thou forfaken me f ? Such was the efficacy and fenfe of divine wrath in his foul, that he had to fay, — ■/ am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint ; my heart is like wax, it is melted in the mtdfl of my bowels J. Here indeed was the highefl difplay of the infinite evil, the exceeding fmfulnefs of fin : and of the mod dreadful but nc- cefiary claims of divine judice on every finner ! The mod realizing apprehenfions of hell can give no fuch view of this matter, as is to be had in meditation 11- pon the crofs of Chrid. § VI. The fufferings of Chrid were of an official nature ; fo that, through the whole of them, he proceeded with gracious aclivity. He indeed appear- ed to be pajfivc, in what he fuffered from the wick- ed hands of his enemies ; but he was fo, no other- wife than as he was pleafed to give himfelf over to their will. He was under no neceility from them, for doing fo : He could have delivered himfelf from them, even in their utter dedru&ion, by a powerful word * Gal. in. 13.; Pfal. llu*. If>. + Matth. ufrii. 4* \ Pfal. xxii. 14. ai2 A View of the word. Nothing could be faid in more fimple and mild terms, than the account which he gave to thofe who came for apprehending him, — that he was the perfon whom they fought: But his word was with fuch power, that they immediately went backward, and fell to the ground*. Nor could they have rifen up, nor could any thing that followed have been got done againfl him ; had he not been pleafed to make no farther refinance, than in giving fuch a linking evidence of what he could do. His own power was fufficient for crufhing all his enemies at once: And he likewife had legions cf angels at his command j-. But, as he had been exercifmg his priefthood through all the courfe of his fufferings; he was then come forward to his principal work in that office : He had appeared to put away fin by thefaerif.ee ofhimfelf\ ;. which be did, in a voluntary laying down of his life. It was of neceflity, that this great High prfefl mould have fomewhat to offer : And no other offering could fuit either his dignity or defign, but that of himfelf;. he hath given himfelf for us, an offering and a facri- f, e to God, for a fweet fuelling favour \. And thi$ official woik he carried on, tin he* actively %av'€ Up the ghofl : When he had faid, It is finijhed% ; the whole effect of the law-curfe on him was fmifhed, and the whole of his work on earth as a facrificing High-prieft. § VII, The fufferings of Chrifl were of a propitia- tory nature. He therein became the propitiation for our fins; officiating as our High-prieft," in offering himfelf without fpoi to God: And he thus made a per- fect atonement for all the fins of all his people; put- ting away all then :jn by the facrijlce of himfelf*"". This * John xviii. 6. + Matth. xxvi. 53. J Heb. ix. 26. || Eph. v. 2. § John xix. 30. ** 1 John ii. 2.; Heb. ix. 14, 26. Covenant of Grace. 21 j This one facrifice was fo perfecT, that there was no room for repeating it ; and fo, He thereupon foi fat down on the right hand of God *. In this manner, he accomplished the whole defign upon which he ha I been fent into an eftate of humiliation : Tofnijh the iranfgrcjfon and to make an end of fins, as to all the guilt thereof which he found his people lying under; and to wake reconciliation for iniquity, and to br'u g in everlafling righteoifnefs j-. His people have therefore to fay, — Chrifi hath redeemed us from the curfe of the law, being made a curfe fcr us : By his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eter- nal redemption for us : And this is the name whereby he Jh all be called, The Lord our Righteousness f, That exercife of the prieflhood of Chrifi which has new been confidered, was a full accomplishment of his undertaking; as to the whole condition of the Co- venant of Grace, infinitely fatisfa&ory and merito- rious : Moil juftly then he faid to the Father, with regard to both his fervice and f offering ; I have glori- fied thee on the earth, I have finijhed the work which thou gavefl me to do ||. And as this was the mod wonderful of all eventg in our world, it was Solem- nized in a more wonderful manner than any other. — During the time that Jefus was on the crols, there was darknefs over all the land', the original properly Signifies, over all the earth : A darknefs beginning at mid-day, and continuing for three hours ; when there could be no natural eclipfe of the fun. And behold, the vail of temple was rent in twain, from the top to the bottom ; and the earth did quake, am rocks rent : And the graves were opened; and man- bodies of faints, which Jlept, rof. — Thefe were Ul ampled and finking miracles in the world of nature; but all as nothing to the infinitelv greater miracle, of * Heb. x. 12. f Dau.ix. 24. | Gal. m. 13.J Heb. is. 12.; Jer, ixiri. 6. |! JotiD xnl \. 1 1 4 A View of the of God-man then dying on the crofs: And laying a fure foundation in his own death, upon which the matter of the angelic fong at his birth was to have a full and everlafting effect; Glory to God in the highefl, and on earth peace ; good will towards men ! Art. IV. Of the Entrance of Jcfus Chrifi into his Glory. § I. At an interview which Jefus had on his re- furrection-day with two of his difciples, whom he found converting in much defpondency about his fufferings ; he hid,-^-Ought not Chrifi to have fuf fcred thefe things, and to enter into his glory * ? A neceflity of thefe fufferings had been molt gracioufly laid upon him, and mo ft gracioufly fubmitted unto by him, in the eftablifhment of the Covenant of Qrace. And there was a neceflity of his thereupon entering into his glory. It was nece/fary from the Father's engagement to him in that Covenant, not only for countenancing him in the courfe of his ferv- ing and fuifering work ; but alfo for accepting of him, upon its being finifhed. And in this accept- ance of him, there was to be a glorifying of him in, human nature ; advancing it to a participation of that glory, in his perfon, which he, as the eternal. Son, had with the Father before the world was f : And in this, all the promifes of the Covenant, on, behalf of his people, were to have a primary ac«. complifhm.ent on himfelf. Moreover, — -he affumed human nature, fo as it could never be laid aiide from a fubfiftence in his perfon. lie therein made himfelf of no reputation, hut this could only be for a time. Upon finifhing the work of his humbled ftate in that nature, — it was absolutely ncceflary, from the divinity of his perfon, * Luke xxiv. 7O. -j- John xvii. 5. Co V£ N ANT Of C R A C E . 21 ^ perfon, that the glory of his Godhead fhould filing forth in its full luftre through his manhood ; that he fhould carry it up in his perfon to the throne of glo- ry above all heavens. § II. His entering into his glory began in his R - furreclion from the dead. — His enemies knew, that he had promifed to rife again on the third day: The) were pofitive, that he could not do fo : But they fuppofed that his difciples might attempt to carry a- way his body from the fepulchre, and give out that he had rifen. Againlt this, they took what they reckoned a moil: effectual precaution : A great (tone having been rolled to the door of the fepulchre, they went and made it fure ; fealing the (lone, and fet- ting a watch. But early on the third day, there was a great earth* quake ; and the angel of the Lord defcended from hca* *ven> and came and rolled back the Jlone from the door, and fat upon it : His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as f novo: And for fear of him the keepers didfoake, and became as dead men *. Then Jefus arofe, and came out of the fepulchre ; divert- ing himfelf of his grave clothes, and laying them properly aiide,— -as none could imagine to have been done by his difciples. God the Father took a judicial part in his refur- redtion ; determining that he fhould be let at liber- ty : Whom God hath raijed up, having loofed the pains of death-, becaufe it was riot pqfftble (nrom his having made full payment of the debt for which he had be- come Surety) that he flmdd be hoi Jen of it f . God the Spirit took an efficacious part in hh rcfurrettion ; making upon him, the primary accoroplifliineni d the promifes on behalf of his myftical body : And io he was declared to be the Son of Cod with fewer, f A£ts iiv 24. i\6 A View of the according to the Spirit of Holinefs ; by the refurreclion from the dead *. — But, as he had power to lay down his life, he had power to take it again ; And this pow- er he had glorioufly exercifed ; as he actively rofe again the third day according to the Scriptures f . § III. His entering into his glory was completed, by hhafc ending up on high J. This he did, when he had continued forty days on earth after his refurrec- tion ; holding various interviews with his difciples : He was then taken up, he went up ; he afcended up far above all heavens. Human nature, which had funk fo amazingly low in fmfui men on earth,— was then feated, in his perfon, on the right hand of the throne of the Majefky in the heavens ||. And what a glorious welcome did he meet with in that nature, from God the Father; with all the an- gels and redeemed in heaven ! Then was verified this high matter of triumph ; God is gone up with a Jhout, the Lord with the found of a trumpet § ! Then, in the highefl fenfe of the words, were the ever loft- ing doors call open, that the King of Glory might come in ** ! — There were human eyes then in hea- ven ; at lead, of Enoch and Elias ; Nor are we to fuppofe, that there had been only a phantom of Mo/h on the mount of transfiguration ; or that, as railed up, he returned from thence to the grave, — anilead of having his body as well as his foul taken up to heaven : Along alfo with the refurreclion of Chrift, many bodies of faints which flept arofe\\; who were certainly taken up to heaven. And with what joy- ful tranfport were all thefe eyes then fixed on the greateft of all wonders, the glorified God-man ; be- holding in him the whole meritorious reafon of their own * Rom. i. 4. f John X. 18. ; 1 Cor. xv. 4. t Eph. iv. 8, 10. || Heb. viii. 1. § Pfal. xlvii. 5, 6. ** Pfal. xxiv. 7, 10. ff Matth. xxvii. 52, 53. Covenant /Grace. 217 own heavenly ftate, — of their not being funk hell! How mud the mutual excitement have then refounded in heaven; Sing praifes to G*d 9 Jing praifes, —-jing praifes to our King, Jing praifes ! § IV. The entering of Jefus Chrift into his glory, did partly belong to the exercife of his kingly office } as he then went to receive for himfelf a kingdom ". — He had exercifed this office in the courle of his hum- bled eitate, by various acts of authority with power ; by calling out devils, and working other miracles. He triumphed as a victorious King over the god of this world, in his fait of forty days. He fo triumph- ed more eminently, over the principalities and pow- ers of hell, on his crofs; amid ft all their apparent tri- umph over him f. Through death, he deitroyed him that had the power bf death J; in refpect of all right- ful dominion over thofe for whom he died. In his refurrectiori, he fo triumphed over death and the grave : As he laid,— death, I will be thy plagues ; O grave, I will be thy dejiruclion ||. During forty days that he continued on earth after his refiirrection, he was in a ftate of royal and unmolefted triumph over Satan ; upon the territory which that wicked tempter had claimed as his own, in the fa ft of forty- days. And when he a/bended on hi^h, he led capti- vity cafiive § : Not only a multitude of captives, his enemies of earth and hell; but even the captivity of his people, as wonderfully bringing it into the fer- vice of his grace and glory. — He thus entered into his glory, as a triumphing Conqueror; with all the flate and majefty which belonged to him as the ting of Glory. § V. The entering of Jefus Chrifl into his glory, C c <^ J * LukexJx. 12. t Col.". r$. J Heb.il. I* (I Hof. xiii. 14. § Pfa1, kvm - lS - 2iS A View of the did peculiarly belong to the exercife of his prieflly office. His refurre&ion belonged to it ; fomehow as the light of the fun belongs to /the fun itfelf. Ac- cording to the Scripture-teftimony, — as he was deli- vered for our offences, he was raifed again for our juf tification *. But his refurrection is no part of his juitiiymg right eau'fnefs \ it no way belongs to the ground of our judication. Yet the evidence of the truth and fufficiency of that fatisfaclion and righte- oufnefs which he fmifhed upon the crofs, lies in his having been raifed again. The truth of his refurrection is edablifhed by many infallible proofs f . It was fo, to the infallible know- ledge of his difciples ; and it is (o, by their infallible teftimony. It was fo, by the molt miraculous pow- ers with which his Apo files were endued by him as become alive for evermore : And it has all along been fo, by many wonderful evidences of his glori- ous life ; in the Angular triumphs of the Gofpel, and that building of his Church againft which the gates of hell have never been able to prevail. And the greated ftrefs is laid upon the truth of his refurrection, as to the faith of Chriftians concerning the efficacy of his death. This teftimony is dill giv- en to them, — If Chrifl be not rifen, then is our preach- ing vain; and your faith is alfo vain ; If Chriji be not raifed, your faith is vain ; ye are yet in your fins J. He was therefore raifed, he rofe again, — unto a full and (landing demonstration, of his having really fi- nifhed his fatisfa&ory and meritorious work upon the crofs ; of his having really put away fin by the facrifce of himfelf And our dependence upon him for judication, as having died for our fins, mud a- nfe from the evidence of his having really and fuffi- ciently done fo; as this lies in his refurre&ion. And he afcended up on high, as our great High- pried , * Horn. iv. 25. f Ads i. 3. % 1 Cor. xv. 14, 17. Covenant of Grace. pried; the Antitype of the high-priefts under the law. He carried his own blood (as to the virtue thereof) into the heavenly fauctuary, for a continu- al prefenting of it before the thy. ikc- wiie prefented all the fpiritual Ifrael to his 1 upon his heart; and as if having the names of all moil individually on a breaft-plate. entered into his glory, by a combined exercife of his prieftly and kingly offices, to fit for ever a Prieft u- pon his throne. Art. V. Of the IntercelTion of Jefus Chvifi. § I. The particular truth of Chrift's Intcrccffwn, is comprehended in the general truth of his Pricflhood. — -In this, as well as in his facyificing work, he was the Antitype of the legal priefts. It certainly bel< ed to them, as it did to the prophet Samuel ', when occafionally offering a facrifice on behalf of the pie, to pray for them unto the Lord * : And the h prieft went alone once every year into the 1. all, not without blood, which he offered for himfelf and for the errors of the people \; thereby making in ceilion for himfelf and them. In al! this, they v typical of Chrift as an interceding High-prieft ; oiii- ciating for his people in that character, without any need of doing fo for himfelf. When God had finifhed his work, of creating and forming this woyld, in thefpace of fix days ; hi cd gii the feventh day from all his work which hi made : He ceafed fyom creating any new forts ol fi- nite being. But he has, all along, been mod al tive unto, and mofl: payticularly employed about the world which he made; it has never been a moment oat of his eye, or out of his hand: He is continually preferving and governing all his creatures and i I) their * i Sam. vli. 5, 8, 9. f Heb. ix. 7. 22$ A View cf the their anions. — In like manner, Jcfus Chrifr. has ceafi ed from the work of his humbled eftate; he is enter- ed into his rej n t*^ as having finifhed his conditionary part of the New Covenant : He had nothing more oi' that fort to do; his work of fervice and fullering could not admit of either alteration or addition. But he is continually employed about that finifhed work, in the way of inter eeflion : He has it in his eye and on his heart; mod intent and careful, without ever forgetting or negle&ing it, to have the whole defign thereof effectuated in due time. The prefent view is particularly adapted to the prefent ftate of mat- ters.: Yet nothing faid is meant to exclude the truth of his interceffion more than of his having been the Mediator of the New-Covenant, under the legal dif- penfation. His fervice and fufFerings, upon which his interceffidri proceeds, were then a matter of fu- turity to men; but they were not fo to him in his divine character, in which nothing was ever to him cither pad or future. It was therefore competent to him, before being manifefted in flefh', — to make that inter cejfion for Jerufalem, in which he was anfwered with good words and comfortable words rf. By his death, the Covenant of Grace was turned into a le/iamentary deed: It became the New Tejla- ment in his blood. His death was the death of the Tejiafcr\, therein bequeathing to his people the molt ineflirnabte legacies; a pleadable intereft in all his fer- vice and fufFerings, for their falvation: Bequeathing to them even himfelf, in his everlafting righteoujf- n.efs and fulnefs of grace; with all the blefTed confe- rences thereof, unto eternal life. He accordingly faid, and dill faith unto Ids difciples; peace 1 leave with you, my peace J give unto you ||. Ail the mem- bers of the vifible Church, tinner's of mankind as fuch, * Heb. [v. id. -j Zech. i- \z, 13. J Hcb. ix. 15, 16, 17; j| John xiv. 27. Covenant of Grace. 221 ftich, arc the direct and immediate objccU of the free offers and cads in the gqfpel: But I fary will ought not to be confounded with thefe gra- cious offers and calls, which belongs to the minijlc- rial accomplifhment of the Covenant of Grace. Only the objects of his death, are to be confiderccl as the objects of his teftamentary will ; or of the le- gacies therein bequeathed: He could not bequeath legacies, but to thefe for whom he purchafed the fame. He doth not extend his interceifion beyond thefe : And, if his teftamentary will were fuppofed to be more extenilve, it muff be fuppofed in io far vain, — and quite unworthy of him : The fuppofition would be an afcribing of an intention to him, which he would not have to be of any effect; which he both knew would be fruflrated, and willed that it fhculd be fo. Yet thefe legacies, in the whole matter thereof, are fet forth indefinitely by the gofpel ; fo as all are equally called and warranted to receive them, upon the grounds to be afterwards explained, — without a- ny refpect to the will of the Teftator in his death, more than to the will of God in election. And they come to bear the form of legacies to individual per- fonr, not as fmpiy exhibited to them by the gofpe), but as alfo embraced by th : faith: The Elect art' the fecret, and believers ai ; the open legatees ci' Chrift's teftament. The teitament became of force, in the death of the Teftator: and when he revived, he no way recalled it. On the contrary, he rofe and afcended, for hav- ing it carried into a full execution. As he had f- nifhed the purchafe of redemption, in the facrifice < t himfelf , he had to bring about an application of it, through his interceffion. He would not have this left at" any uncertainty ; his people being as inci ble, of themftlves, to make the application as the pui 2 2 2 A V I E w of the purchafe. But, by his own bloody he entered In once, into the holy place above; for having this great matter abfolutely fecured, by his appearing in the prefence of God for them *. There is nothing more plainly expreffed and afcer- tained in Scripture, than this interceffion of Chri'ft. He is even at the right hand of God, and maker h i cejjionforus: He is able to fave them to ihe utteKfiiofi, that come unto God by him ; feeing he ever liveth to make in- tercejfion for them : We have an Advocate with the Fa- ther, J ejus Chrifi the righteous f. And his inter- cefTion is mod infallible, to be abfolutely depended upon by his people ; as he hath fail to fay unto the Father, / knew that thou hear eft me always \. He is therefore making a continual a.d effectual intercef- fion, with regard to all his people ; unto a having all the bleffings of his redemption beftowed upon them, and enjoyed by them for ever. § II. His interceffion, while on earth, was in a fupplicatory manner ; or in the form of prayer. All. his praying in thofe days of his flefh, was inter ceffory ; as he could have no employment in a private cha- racter: And we have a precious fummary of the in- terceffion which he is now making above, in his fo- lemn prayer recorded in the feventeenth chapter of the Gofpel according to John. But that former manner of interceffion cannot confift with his glori- fied eftate. His interceffion now is in a different manner ; by a folemn and official prefenting of him- felf to God the Father, in the name and on the be- half of all his people: Exhibiting his precious blood and perfect righteoufnefs, as fatis factory for them ; and meritorious of all bladings to be beftowed upon them. And this he doth, with an efficacious Wil- ling * Hcb. ix. 12, 24. f Rom. vili. 34. ; Heb. ?ii. 25. ; I John ii. 1. % John xi. 42. Covenant of Grace; Ling of all that eilcci ; faying, — father, I will*. It is beyond our line to lay, whether the mouth of his glorified body may be uttering any words to this purpofe ; but a /peaking is afcribed to his blood f. And though there can be no need of words, for in- timating his will to the Father ; they could afford unipeakable ravifhment to the glorified ears of fomfc of the redeemed already in heaven. When Paid was caught up to the third heaven, — he heard un- fpeakable words, which it is not lawful (rather pojfible) for a man to utter \ among mortals. § III. The matter of ChrifVs interceflion lies in the great and precious promifes of the New-Covenant. The promifes peculiar to Chrift, have had their ac- complishment ; but the promifes to him concerning them, as alfo the promifes to them in him, — have their accomplifhment (till going on. Thefe promifes were all to be fulfilled, upon the condition under- taken by him in the Covenant of Grace ; and that condition being fulfilled, all thefe promifes mud in- fallibly be fo: No obitru&ion, from earth or hell, can, in any degree, prevent that happy event. It is this, for which Chrift is making continual inter- ceflion ; upon the ground of his own obedience un- to death, and of the Father's faithfuinefs to him in the New-Covenant. None of thefe promifes are e- ver forgotten or overlooked by him: Nothing could be abated to him, in the conditional part of the Covenant ; and he will abate nothing in the promif fory part of it. How full is the provifion thus made, for the perfect and everlafting falvation of all his people! Nothing in or about them, no efforts of de- vils or wicked men, — can procure any difappoint- mentofit, in the cafe of any one of them, 'lhe Father * John xv-i. 24. f Hcb, til 24. % 2 Cor. xii. 2, 4. 2^4 d Vie w of the Father (till fays, concerning his eternal Son ; My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my Cove- nant fh all ft and f aft with him *. § IV. The objecls of Chrift's interceffion are a pe- culiar people, thefe whom the Father elected front all eternity to everlafting life; then giving them to Chrift, for being faved by him. He accordingly faid, though with an immediate refpedt to his eleven Difciples,— / pray for them; I pray not for the world, but for them which thou haft given me : Neither pray 1 for thefe alone, but for them alfo who Jhall believe on me through their word |. And thefe are the objects of his interceffion under different views : ift, Some of them are yet unborn; but to be fo, feverally, in their appointed times. The Lord Chrift knoweth all thefe, as being his ; he looks forward to each individual of them, in the courfe of ages, as his floe ep whom he muft bring \ : And fo, the people which Jhall be created Jhall praife the Lord ||. Their being brought forth into the natural world, is not properly a matter of promife,— but of divine purpofe : And Chrift's interceffion has a refpect to this pur- pofe ; infifting to have it performed in the fet time, as fubfervient to the promifes on their behalf. idly, Some of them, though born, are continuing for a time in their natural eftate. And his intercef- fion is for having them preferved in life, through all that time; as alio, from the unpardonable fin : In- terceding likewife for an ordering of their outward lot, in bringing the means of Grace to them, or them to the means ; fuch as may ferve for his gracious de- fign upon them in due feafon. After this manner, he has an eye upon them and a concern about them ; as * Pfal. lxxxix. 28. f John xvil. 9. 20. % John x. 16* II Pfal. cii. iS. Covenant of Grace. 225 as he had with regard to many fuch in Corinth, when he laid, — 1 have much people in this city *. 2dly 9 As he is ever intent upon the approach and arrival of the preeife moment which had been fixed, when every one of them ihould be brought out of their natural into a gracious (late; fo he is ma interceflion for the Holy Spirit then to uke pol fion of their fouls.— as the fpirit of life, of revelation and of faith : Bringing them into a (late of regene- ration, juftincation and adoption ; toward a progrcf- five fanctification of nature and life. He will not have thefe fheep to continue a moment longer out of the fold. His interceflion fecures an ordering of providential circumitances and gracious means, fot bringing them effectually into that fold ; one by one. He is, as it were, faying about each, — fat her , / that this perfon be now a brand piuckt out of the /ire]* And the blefled event is the fame, upon the matter, with them all. 4tbly, His interceflion, or interpoHtion betwixt God and them, refpecls all the concerns of his peo- ple when brought into a ftate of Grace, — till they be brought into that of Glory. It fecures their prefer- vation, in the New-Covenant ftate of peace and ho- linefs: The continued acceptance of their perfons, their being {till accepted in the Beloved ; and the ac- ceptance of their gracious fervices, acceptable to by Jefus Chriji : So that they are complete in him \. It fecures all the meafures of Grace and gracious at- tainments, of fpiritual health and cure, — which he fees meet to have bellowed upon them : As to " af- M furance of God's love, peace of confeience, joy in " the Holy Ghoft, increafe of Grace, and perfe- ec verance therein to the end." It fecures all the outward through-bearing, preservation and protec- D d tion, * A£s xviif. 10. f Zcch. hi. 2. % Eph. i. 6.; i Pet. it. 5. ; Cul. u. 10. 226 A View of the tion, leading and guiding, — which he is pleafed to have them bleiTed with ; deliverances from evil, de- fence againft the great adverfary of their fouls, and a working together of all things for their good. Par- ticularly, it maintains their continual accefs to God by him in prayer, — amidfl all their unworthinefs; as he offers up their prayers with much incenfe of his own merit ; For through him we have an accefs by one Spi- rit unto the Father; boldnefs, and accefs with confi- dence^ by the faith of him *. His intercefiion like wife fecares a blefied death for his people, as dying in him ; with an immediate pairing of their fouls into eternal glory. — So it is that the great IntercefTor is continually employed, about all and each of his peo- ple ; according to his and their intereft in each o- ther. As he is appearing in the prefence of God for them, he is prefenting them all to God in his own perfon : For they are raifed up together ■, and made to fit together hi heavenly places, in Chrift jefus f. He is the fore-runner, entered for them within the vail\ : Filling heaven with the good news of their coming after him in their times ; to poflefs thefe manfions in his Father's houfe which he hath prepared for them, and which he hath taken actual poffelTion of in their name. 5thly> The objects of Chrift's intercefiion conti- nue to be io, upon the other fide of death; when their fouls are among the fpir its of juft men made per- feci. They are ever intent upon regaining the bo- dies which they have left behind them in their graves : Heaven will not be fully heaven to them, till they again poflefs thefe once vile bodies ; fajhioned by him like unto his glorious body ||. And he is more emi- nently intent upon having them all at length fet down with him on his throne, partaking with him in the * Rev. viii. 3.; Eph. II. 18.; iii. 12. \ Eph. ii. 6. % Heb. vi. 20* |1 Phil. iii. 21- Covenant of Grace. 2:7 the fulnefs of glorified humanity. — Their bodies, \ in the grave, do Jleep in Jefus * ; continuing in a Hate of myflerious union to him, as a part of his myftical body. He hath his heart and eye (till 1. them, when diilblved into the appearance of com- mon earth : And as he would have their fouls to hea- ven, at palling out of the body ; he will alfo have their bodies to it, out of the grave. For this, he is making continual interceffion : In virtue whereof, when he fhall one day fit upon a great white throne^ an effectual demand will be made on the earth the fea, — for giving up all thefe bodies to him f ; in a glorious refurreclion, reanimated for eternal glory. § V. The interceflion of Chrift, in his unchange- able priefthood, continueth ever ; It is to be for c in exercife and efficacy; when the myltery of God, as to the whole work of Grace fhall be finifhed. — when the Church, now partly militant, (hall be come wholly triumphant in heaven. He was a facn,. Prieft, only for a time ; but he is to be a Prieft for ever I, in the way of inter -ccjjion. He will not have any new benefits to procure by his intei fion ; as the promiffory part of the Covenant will then be completely fulfilled. Theholinefe and h of the redeemed in heaven, will be at once carri< the higheft perfection that their natures can admit of; which therefore can receive no addition. But this will not fuperfede the everlaftiog continu- ance of Chrift's interceihon in the heavenly ftate. For the redeemed mult ever have their (landing in him, as the one Mediator between Gc4 and men; ihcy muft ever have their glorious fellowfhip with the Three-onc-God, through him in that character. 1 being with him in heaven through eternity, will de- pend upon an eternity of that ef:;caci< which + Rev. xx. 11. 15. 228 A View of the which he expreffed on earth ; father, twill that they aljo whom thou haft given me be with me where I am y that they may behold my glory which thou haft given mc ; for thou lovedjl me before the foundation of the world *. Were the act and energy of that interceiTory will to be fuperfeded for a moment, the) would imme- diately lofe their place in the (late of glory. SECT. IX Of the Accomplifhment of the Covenant of Grace, by Chrift as a Prophet. § I. In the days of his humiliation, Jesus appear- ed as a Proph t; might)' in deed and word, before God and all the people -\. But he bore a prophetical office before that appearance ; as he doth ft 111 . He is the primary, the original Prophet and Teacher ; that character having never belonged, nor belong- ing to any others, but in a minifterial employment under him. He was of old promifed, as a Pro- ph et whom the Lord would raife up in the human family, like unto Mofes \ ; more like unto him than unto any other Prophet; as he is the great antitypi- cal Leader and Commander to the people \\ : And Mo- fes was but a fervant in erecting the old fabric of the hgal-ftaie ; whereas Jesus came to erect, in its place the new fabric of the gofpel-ftate, — as a Son over his own houfe § . As a Prophet, he is the Meffcngcr of the Cove- nant of Grace; manifesting it in the Church: He is fet to be a light of the Gentiles, that hejhould beforfal- -vation unto the ends of the earth **. — And the exercife of his prophetical office is of great importance to his accom-i * John xvii. 24.. f I -'ike xxiv. 19. t Deut. xviii. 15.; Ad=. iii. 21. |! Ifa. lv. 4. § Heb. in. 5, 6. Mai Hi. £,; Acts xjii. 47. Covenant of Grace. 229 accomplifhment of the Covenant of Grace ; as it is immediately through this, that the exercife of his frieftly office comes to have its proper ctiect among; ilnful men. § II. The whole revelation that we have in the holy Scriptures hath been brought forth by him, in the exercife of his prophetical office. He has the expounded the law, many things which are origi- nally of natural knowledge ; in oppoiition to mani- fold ignorance, mifapprehenfions and errors concern- ing the fame, in the minds of finfuJ men: And all the prophecies in the books of the Old Teitament, were primarily from him as the Great Prophet. He like- wife excrcifed that office as a foreteller of future e- vents on various occaiions in the courfe of his perfoi al miniftry; and afterwards bv his Apoltles, chiefly in the book of Revelation. — In all theie things, we have the testimony of Jefus Chriji *. He was peculiarly employed as a Prophet, a Teacher amc from God, when perfonally converlant among men in this world. God who atfundry times, and in divers manners, /pake in time pajt unto the fa- thers by the Prophets ; hath, in theft loft days, fpokeri unto 11s by his Son-f. And his perfonal teaching wa mofl: lingular, fo that the people were ajionijhed ,. cloclrine ; for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the fcribes: His enemies found thefttfdves obliged to confefs, that ?iever man fpake like this man \. § III. The principal exercife of Chrifl's prophcti cal office, lies in the revelation which he has made of divine myfteries; as thefe are exhibited in the holy Sciptures, and are eminently the doclrine cf tl.s * Rev. i. 2. f Iltb. 1. 1, 2. t Matth. vii. 28, 29.; John HI. 46. q$o A View of the Lord*. This is the revelation of 'the myftery , which was kept fecret fine e the world began ; — which in other ages was not made known unto the fons of men 9 as it was at length revealed unto his holy Apofflles and Pro- phets by the Spirit f: That myftery which was, for many ages, kept an abfolute fecret from the Gentile nations ; and was much kept fecret from the Jewifli nation alfo; in comparifon with the full difcovery which is now made of it by the gofpel. This is the myftery which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God ; the myftery of his will\ : Which lies abfolutely above the reach of human reafon, being wholly a fubjeel of fupernaturai reve- lation by Jefus Chrift ; — -for no man hath feen God at any time ; the only begotten Son, which is in the bofom of the Father ', he hath declared him |j. The firft ut- terance was made of this myftery by Chrift hirnfelf, in the finl promife concerning hirnfelf, on the back of the fall; the revelation of it was gradually advan- ced by him, in the Scriptures of the Old Teftament : And, in thefe of the New Teftament, he hath brought it to a ftate of perfection. The matter of this revelation is manifold, in all the doctrines and promifes of grace: Concerning the perfon and offices of Chrift, with his humiliation anc} exaltation; the whole myftery and method of falva!- tion through him; — the Covenant of Grace, which was eftabliftied with him from eternity; the won- derful condition of it, as fulfilled in his obedience unto death; and the further accomplifhment which it is ftiil to have, according to the great and preci- ous promifes which it contains. — Such is the exercife of his prophetical office, as long ago finifhed in rer fpecl of external difpenfation: Such is the complete re- velation which he has made to us by the Scriptures, in which * A6ts xii'i. 12. f Rom xvi. z$. ; Epli. lii. 5. + Eph.iVsM in- 9- |! J.obo;i. 18. Covenant (/Grace. 231 which he (till fpeaketh from heaven* \ and u unto " which nothing is at any time to be added, whe- " ther by new revelations of the Spirit or tradi- " tions of men." § IV. There is a continued exercife of Chrift'i prophetical office, in refpect of internal difptnfatiom If men had been left to act as they pleafed, with re- gard to that which is external; it rauft have been loft upon ail, without ever taking a faving effect upon a- ny. The carnal mind is enmity againjl God ; for it is not fab j eel to the law of God, neither indeed can be f : It cannot be, while continuing a carnal mind-, which it mu(t infallibly continue to be, till there be a fu- pernatural renovation of it. Nor is the carnal mind any thing lefs fet againft Chriji and his gofpel, than againft God and his law. But the glorious Pro- phet of the Church has not left, he could not leave the external revelation which he has made, — not (im- ply to an uncertainty of fuccefs among Tinners, but to a certainty of having no fuccefs among them at all: Which muff infallibly have been, and would always be the cafe; if he mould not alio make it in- ternal, by a fupernatural efficacy upon the fouls of men. The gofpel would come to them quite in vain, as to any other confequence but an aggravating of their condemnation; without coming, — not in word only, but alfo in power '{. The doctrines of it can have no faving efted, but as made mighty through God to the pulling down of ' Jlrong holds : Cajling down imaginations, the reafonings of carnal and corrupt minds ; and every high thing that exalteth it/elf a- gainjl the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivi- ty every thought to the obedience of Chvijl ||. Accordingly, when he comes to profecute a gra- * Heb. xii. 25. t Rom * v *"' ">' \ l Theff. i. 5. ij 2 Cor. x. 4, fr *$! A View of the cious defign upon perfons, — he brings them to an experience of this important truth, that by the law is the knowledge of fin *. He brings home the law upon the confcieiice, in the convincing work of his Spirit: Awakening the perfon, to a dreadful appre- henfion of natural linfulnefs and mifery ; making to fee himfelf juftly fubje&ed to the curfe of the. law, and on the brink of everlafting perdition. The per- fon then gets this for a great event of his life, the commandment came] ; that the law has been made to come in upon him, with an irrefiftble and alarming power. And as the work of conviclion is carried on, he gets what follows for another great event of his life, — Idled: A death is brought upon him as to his carnal refl 9 in a (late of thoughtlefihefs about his falvation ; and as to his legal reft, in going about to eftablifh his own righteoufnefs : His mouth is flopped before God, he is felf-condemned, he is re- duced to a defpairing in himfelf ; feeing his wicked and woful condition to be quite irremediable for eter- nity, according to any thing that he can either do or devife. The great Prophet, who fpeaks as never man fpake, at length fpeaks in the word of grace to the perfon's foul: His mind is enlightened, the eyes of his un- derstanding are opened ; unto fome beholding of the righteoufnefs which is of God by faith. A fupernatu- rai, a fweet difcovery is made to him, of an open re- fiijjfe and abundant relief for his guilty confcience juit at hand, in the fulfilled condition of the New Covenant; in the full atonement made, and the ever- lading righteoufnefs brought in, by the glorious Head of that Covenant. — Such is the exercifc of Chrift's prophetical office, in refpect of internal dif~ penfation; with an experience of which the perfoa is then mod diftincn-iiihingly bleffed. §v. * Rom. iii. 2>. f Rom. vii. 9. Covenant of C; § V. The faving confequence of this difpenfation toward ,and in the peribn, is moft infallible. His foul flies into the refuge which he fees fet open to him, it readily embraces the relief which he I freely offered to him : He takes up his reft be) God in Surety-righteoufnefs ; he takes hold of ( ! Covenant of Grace, by an appropriating | to all the righteouiiicfs and grace of it f I hitnfelf over to be faved in the Lord Ciirift, wit] everlafting falvation ; — he is thus brought into the bond of the Covenant ; unto a bleffed fettlemciit for eternity. Thefe members of the vifible Church, who continue (hangers to all this in their experience, — are cbi of dif obedience, of unperfuadableneJs. The external difpenfation is the fame to them as to others : The fame alarms are given to them by the law, for fly- ing from the wrath to come ; the fame offers are made, and the fame calls are given to them by the gofpel. But they flop their ears and w'll nQt hear; they ciofe their eyes, and will not fee. It is not merely from natural inability, that they obev not the gofpel ; but it is immediately from unwiiling- nefs, obflinateiy rejecting the counfel of God again ft themfeives: This is the condemnation, thai light is come into the world ; and men loved darknefs r,: than light, becaufe their deeds were evil. All the ex- ternal difpenfation with which they are privileged, ferves only to render them more inexcufable; fo that // jhall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom, ;» the day of judgment, than for then. V c E C T. 234 iJ Vie w of the SECT. III. Of the AcccmpUjhment of the Covenant of Grace, by Ghrifl as a King. § I. Jefus Chrift is a King, as he is God. — All things 'were made by him, and without him was not any thing made that was made *. Particularly, all ra^ tional creatures were made by him, as he is the fame one God with the Father : And an abfolute domi- nion over all thefe as their King, their Lawgiver and Judge, is eifeiitial to his Godhead. He is according- ly called the King eternal, immortal, invifible, the on- ly wife God : the bleffed and only Potentate ; the King of Kings and Lord of Lords f. He thus exercifes an abfolute dominion, of both natural and moral go- vernment, over all perfons and things in this world. He is the Lord, who hath prepared his throne in the heavens ; and his kingdm ruleth over all\. He who is Mediator, though not as Mediator but as God, has to fay of himfelf; By me Kings reign, and Princes decree jujlice, — even all the Judges of the earth ||. § II. Jefus Chrift is a King as Mediator; for which he could not have been qualified, but by be- ing a King as God. A kingly office belongs to his mediatory character ; and it neceflarily doth fo : That the falvation which is purchafed by him as a Pricfl, and revealed by him as a Prophet, might not be oft; might be applied and maintained by him as a King. — As a mediatory King, he was to bruife the feroent's head : And many other exhibitions were made of him under that character, in the writ- ings of the Old Teftament. A proclamation was if- fued • John I. 3. -j 1 Tim.i. 17.; v«. 15. 1 Pfal. citi. 19- || Prov. viii. 15, 16. Covenant of Grace, 235 iiied concerning him, as the Mtjfiah who was a- coming ; Say among the heathen* the Lord r eigne th* —he comet h to judge the earth : The Lord nigncth* let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of the ifles be glad thereof*. The Jewifh Church had this glorious pre- monition concerning him ; Behold thy King cometb : Eeisjujl, and having falvatwn ; lowly and riding u- pon an afs ; and upon a colt the foal of an afs : He jhall Jit and rule upon his throne* and Jhall be a Priefl upon his throne f. It was promifed concerning him who is the Lord our Right ousnlss ; A King Jhall reign andprefper* and Jhall execute judgment andjujiice in the earth : Of the incrtafe of his government and peace* there fh all be no end \. The kingly office of Chrift is not effential to him; it is delegated by the Father to him as Mediator : Concerning which he fays ; All power (power of au- thority* as the original word fignifies,) is given unto, me y in heaven and in earth ||. — And his mediatory government is no lefs extenfive than his divine go- vernment, with regard to the objects thereof: For the Father hath put all things under his feet ; and gave him to be the Head over all things to the Church ; — the Father hath committed all judgment unto the Son §. He hath a right to fet up his kingdom of grace in a Church-ftate over all the earth, wherever he has iheep to bring ; and, at one time or other, he doth fo : As the Father hath faid to him ; / JJiall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance* and rhe utter mofi parts of the earth for thy pojej/icn**. Wherever he knows that he has other fheep to bring, though at the diilance of many generations; there he is my- fteriouily ordering matters in the mean time, as a mediatory King, toward that gracious iiTue: And he * PfaL xcvi. 10, 13. ; xcvii. i. f Zech. ix. 9. ; vi. 13. X Jer. xxiii. 5. 6. ; Ifa. ix. 7. |j Matth. xxviii 18. § Epli. i. 22. 5 John v. 22. *•* Pfal. ii. 8. 430 arfi View 0/! f. , in like manner, ordering and difpofing of all things through the world, beyond as well as within the boundary of his Church; in a fubfervience to her prefeht and future benefit. His mediatory kingdom cannot fuperfede, cr fup- p!y the place of his efientia! kingdom as God \ can- not fufpend the proper influence of his Godhead: But he has a diilincl:, though conjunct adrniniitra- tion of both thefe kingdoms. As to the difference betwixt his divine and mediatory government, it is not with regard to the objects of the one and the o- thef ; for the objects of both are materially the fame: But the difference lies in the various manners of admi- niftration* By his divine government, he is order- ing and difpoSng of all perfons and things in their natural courfe toward their natural ends. But, by his mediatory government, he is likewife ordering and ditpofmg- of the fame perfons and things, fo far as he is gracioufly pleafcd,— in a fupernatural courfe towafd fupernatural ends : He makes all natural, things, even the word, fubfervient to the interefts of his Church and people : fo that ail things work toge- ther for their good*. And Jefus Chrift, as a mediatory King, is appoint- or of ail things : The Father loveth the Son, and hatbghx'n all things into his hand-]. — -His diSHnguifh- ing part of the Covenant of Grace, was a fulfilling the rendition of it ; and this he hath done, in the ex~ fe of his prieftly office on earth. Upon that md, the Father's diitinguifhing part of the Co- in, th$ pHtfiiffory part of it, was to be fulfilled. And all this was virtually done upon Ohrift himfelf ; in his refurrection, j unification, and reception into v : All the promifes having thus got a primary accomplifhment upon his people in him, as their glorified Head. When he afcended en high, he re- a ived : * Kjom. viii. *8. f Heb. i. 2.; John in, 55. Covenant of Grace. 237 ... d gifts for men : All the promifed blcflings of the Covenant were put into his hand, treafured up in hi hi ; for it pi cafe d the Father that in him jhould all fui'rkfi -i-zvdl*. Tin's account he is Mill giving of himfeli to us ; all things are delivered unto me of my Father f : So that all Covenant bleflings mud be re- ceived by us, immediately out of his hand. Having obtained the prin^ary performance of the promifes u- pon himfelf, in the place and name of his people ; he is entrufl.ed with the feeondary and final perform- ance thereof upon them : For all the promifes of God in him are yea^ and in him amen , unto the glory of God by us : he has them all in truft for us. Having com- pleted the purchafc of redemption, he is entrufted With iht application of it by his Spirit: Unto a full effectuating of all the promifes ; and a difpenfing of all the promifed biefiings, as become the unfearchable riches of Chrifl \. % III. Jefus Chrift is a mediatory King, efpecially in the vifiblc Church: Ke is the alone King and Head of his Church,— -as his fpiritual, free and indepen- dent kingdom; in its nature absolutely different from, and no way fubordinated to the kingdoms of this world. Such a kingdom he had for many ages, of a very confined (late, in thejewifh Church: But, under the New-Teitament, he hath glorioufly en- larged that kingdom among the Jews and Gentiles on a level; according to many illuffrious prophefies in the Scriptures of the Old Teflament, concerning that great event. He hath inflituted peculiar means, for the erec- tion and adminiilration of this kingdom. When he afcended up on high, — he gave fome, apcflles ; andfon:e, prophets; andfome^ evangelijts ; and fome, pajhrs and teachers : * Pfal. ixviil. 18.; Col. i. 19. f Matth. xi. 27. t Eph. m. 8. 238 A View of the teachers : F^r the perfecting of the faints, for the work of the minijrry, for the edifying of the body of Chrifl*. He hath eftabhfhed a fyftem of ordinances in the Church ; of doctrine, worfhip, government and dis- cipline: And he hath eilabiifhed a fucceffion of or- dinary office -bearers in the Church, befide fome at firit who were extraordinary ; for the administering of thefe ordinances. By thefe means he ft ill gathers numbers of mankind into a vifible Church, and maintains them in that ftate ; through different parts of the world, as he fees meet. This Church confiits, partly, of his own eleel: : But it confiits likewife of many others; of all in ge- neral who are brought to cs profefs the true religion, Ci and their children. " This is, " the kingdom of ci the Lord Jefus Chrifl:, the houfe and family of '' God; out of which, there is no ordinary poffibi- " lity of falvation.'' This Church is formed and maintained, not only by a fupernatural efficacy with which he blefled the means of grace upon fome ; but likewife by a common, a mere natural and rational efficacy of thefe means, with a various concurrence oi providential circumftances, upon the minds and, conferences of many others : And for all this he, " doth, by his own presence and Spirit," make thefe. outward means effectual. The vifible Church doth thus enjoy " the com-^ t; munion of faints, the ordinary means of falvation ; " offers of grace by Chrift to all the members of it, c: in the miniitry of the Gofpel: Teltifying, that " wbofoever believes in him (hall be laved ; and ex-. '5 eluding none who will come unto him." He thus as in the vifible Church as a mediatory King, by all the ordinances and office-bearers which he hath inftituted'; difpenfing his laws, his royal proclama- and calls : And " the vifible Church hath the 6i privilege ph. iv. 8. 11, 12. Covenant of Grace. Sgjj €i privilege of being under God's fpecial care and " government ; of being protected and preserved in " all ages, notwithstanding the oppofition or all e- " nemies ;" — and the gates of hell Jhall not prevail againft it *• § IV. Jefus Chrift is a mediatory King, more e- fpecially in the inviftble Church. This is the Church of the converted elect: Of all who are " gathered u into one, under Chritl the Head thereof; and is " the fpoufe, the body, the fulnefs of him that fill-* ce eth all in all." The exercife of Chrift's kingly office in this Church, is an interna! difpenfation; a fecret exercife of it within the fouls of men, — deal- ing with them feverally, one by one, There is a beautiful uniformity of this, in the cafe of all; in the cafe of thofe who have been gathered, and who are gathered, and who {hall be gathered to Chriil. It is, therefore, fufficient here, to cor.fi der the prefent ftate of the cafe : Of this internal difpenfation, as now carried on by outward means; thefe means of grace which are common to all the members of the vifible Church, and are blefTed with a fupernatural efficacy upon the fouls of feme. But it is to be confidered, — that the exercife of ChrilVs prophetical and kingly offices, in the fouls of thofe perfons, do, as it were, coalefce into one internal difpenfation. Thefe exercifes are, in their nature, diftinct ; but they are infeparable and inter- woven, in Chriftian experience. The one properly lies in manifeftation to a foul, but the other in an exertion of royal authority and power upon the foul. By the one there is evidence, and by the other there is efficacy ; but the evidence is with efficacy, and the efficacy is with evidence. What has, therefore, been obferved in the laft fection, about the nature and confequence * Matth. xri. iS. 240 d View of the confequence of the internal exercife of Chrifl's pro- phetical office, — is to be confidered as taking place through a conjunct exercife of his kindly office ; at the fame time [peaking and doing in fouis, — his word being with power *. After the fame manner, what may be further obferved about the internal exercife of his kingly office, — is to be confidered as implying a conjunct exercife of his prophetical office; work- ing in fouls, through illumination. § V. Thefe whom Chrift gathers to himfelf by the means of grace, are naturally as all others among whom they live: He finds them dead in trefpaffc and fins, walking according to the courfe of this world, children of difobedience ; without itrength, ungodly, enemies ; the children of wrath, even as others. But nothing of all this, in their cafe, can withitand the almighty power by which he brings them to himfelf. And he has full authority, as a me- diatory King, for exerting that power in a gracious efficacy upon them. By the execution of his pried- ly office, in the fatisfaclion which he hath made, and the righteoufnefs which he hath fulfilled, — all bars, on God's part, are removed out of the way of this efrk:.cy. He hath fatisfied all the natural claims of the jullice and law of God upon them; fo that the way is fully cleared, for his dealing with them by an immediate exertion of his authoritative or mediatory power, — working gracioufly in them, to the higheit glory of all the divine perfections. And it is a very new condition which they are thus brought into; vaftly diftinguifhing them from the world that lieth in wickednefs. As, \ 1/?, They are made willing, in the day of his pow- er f : Willingly obedient to the calls of his grace, v/iliingly embracing the o.ffers of his grace. Thefe who Luke iv. ^2. f Wri* ex. 3. Covenant of Grace. 241 were fame time alienated, and enemies in their mind by wicked works, (or by their mind, taking effect in wicked works) ; yet now hath he reconciled*. He brings them into the bond of the Covenant f: Into a New Covenant (late, into a ftate of peace and ac- ceptance with God ; a ftate of fonihip, which is a ftate of heirfhip as to all the bleffirigs of the New Covenant. His righteoufnefs, which was formerly unto them, by a gracious offer of it, — comes now to be upon them, by a gracious imputation of it for their juftifkation: His Spirit takes pofleffion of them, as the Spirit of adoption ; the good work is begun in them, by his w r orking faith in them, — and implant- ing all the other graces of the Spirit in their fouls. And all this is brought about, by an exceeding greatnefs of his power, in a very fweet and myfteri- bus exertion of it upon them. He quickens them, into a ftate of new life; they are regenerated, made new creatures: He gives them a new heart, he puts a new fpirit within them \. As their minds are fu- pernaturally enlightened in the knowledge of Chrift, their wills are renewed ; brought over to a compli- ance with his will in the gofpel : So that they are perfuaded and enabled to embrace Jefus Chrifl ; to receive and reft upon him alone for falvation, as free- ly offered to them in the gofpel. Though this great work be the fame in all, as to the matter of it ; there is a great diverfity, as to the manner of his bringing it to that happy iffue. — There is always a conviction of fin and mifery by the law, but in very different degrees of impreiTion. In fome, it is only a breaking of their carnal and legal reft, — by alarms of his word, and occurrences of provi- dence; but in others, it is a filling them with the terrors of the Lord. Some may be, for a good length of time, exercifed in this manner, the one way or F f the * Col. i.2i. f Ezek. xx. 37. % Ez'**k. xxxvi. 26. 242 A View of the the other, and with various interruptions; having to fay, according to their different circumstances,— there is no found 'is fts in my flcjh, neither is there any reft in my bones : The farrows of death compaffed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me ; J found trouble and for row *. Though fome may be long exercifed this way, others are brought more quickly to an happy outgate: Which was the cafe with Peter's hearers on the day of Pentecoft ; and with the jail- or, — -whofe fudden conviction made him to cry out, What fl) all I do to be faved \ ? But fome are fweetly broug.it in to Chrift at once, under a joint difcovery of fin and falvation; as Philip's hearers in Samaria J. They * Pfal. xxxviii. 3.; cxv{. 3. f Ads 11-37- 41.; xvi. 30, 31, 34. t Acts viii. 6, 8, 12. X [The author thinks it proper to introduce here, the following pajfage in a fermon which he preached and published fome time ago t on John x. 16.] The Lord Chrift takes various ways of dealing with his fheep, in bringing them. — With Tome he has a preparatory work, for a confiderable length of time ; lefs or more gradual and diftinc~i. He breaks their carnal reft, their natural and brutal-like indif- ference about the /late of their fouls; in their minding only earth* ly things, fulfilling the corrupt defires of the rkfh and of the mind. Through means of what knowledge they have, and by varioui concurring providences, he brings them under ferious con- siderations about another world; about death, the judgment be- yon 1 it, — and their eternal condition to be thereby determined, according to the forebodings of a guilty conference : So that they cannot longer find their former fati.sfa£tion, in any tempo- ral erijoymenta or profpe&s. He next breaks 'heir legal reft, in going about to eflablifh their own righteoufnefs* Under convictions of their natural fin- fnlnefs and mifery, — they firft endeavour to pleafe God, and fa- tisfy their own confeiences, by the works of the law. They fet about reformation, at finl more fupcrficial and coarfe ; next, more internal and refined, — feeking righteoufnefs as it were by the works of 'the 'law : And they may come to be fo evangelical* li!;e, in this legal excrcife, that they feem to be driven off from all depen- Covenant of Grace. 243 They are fubdued, by a fecret and mod gracious efficacy, to the obedience of faith : That faith which fees, embraces and reds upon Jefus Child ; parti- cularly, as to all that work of priedhood which he finifhed on the crofs. And how glorious is the reft which a perfon thus finds for his foul; after being difquieted and didrefled, by apprehenfions of his own gultinefs and of God's wrath ! — The Pfalmift laid to the Lord in a rapture of thankful joy ; / will offer unto thee burnt facrifices of fat lings, with the incenfe of rams : dependence but on the righteoufnefs of Chrift; only that they ft ill feek fomething in what they feel or do, though ftill in vain, — as a fort of neceffary preparation or warrant for taking up that dependence. But at length all their reformations, regularities, good frames, ferious endeavours, religious ftriftnefs, refolutioni and vows ; all thefe are made to fail them, as to a ground of foul-reft : And they are brought to their wits end, fometin-es under great terrors in a law work ; before a day of the revelation of Chrift comes to dawn in their fouls. With others, our Lord deals in a more fweet and fummary way. He draws them with cords of a man, with hands of love: As it were difcovering to them at once the malady and medicine, the ruin and relief j in a fweet and kindly manner drawing them to himfelf. But whatever be his particular way of bringing his fiieep, it comes all to this ; That they are brought off from the law of works y and brought over to the law of faith. They arc brought off from the law of works, from all ways of doing for life ; from all dependence on any aftive righteoufnefs, or that to which they contribute any thing by their own activity, la the evan- gelical-like manner of legal exercife to which they may come, the mediatory and justifying righteoufnefs of Chrift is what they only have as a, matter of rational fpeculation ; it is not that righ- teoufnefs itfelf which they contemplate, but only a general and dark notion of it in their minds ; a;.d an awakened foul can ne- ver find reft in a notion. But they are at length brought, pyey to the law of faith : To the conititution ofgrace, — according to which a guilty (inner obtains the pardon of all his fins, ;\\\6 is accepted of as righteous in the fight of God ; only for the righ- teoufnefs of Chrift, imputed to him, and received by faith alone. He is thus brought to take up an immediate ar.d abfolute depen- dence 144 -A View of the rams: I will offtr bullocks, with goats * . This was :J in itfelf, a poor offering ; moil unworthy of God 3 other wife than the typical confederation which Da- vid had of it. But the perfon now fpoken of has a far higher (train of language, to fill his heart and mouth ; concerning the great atonement for fin, as already made in the death of Chrift. He has to fay, along with others who are bleffed as he ; We joy in God, through our Lord Jefus Chrift, by whom we have, now received the atonement f . He has to fay of it ; This is the true atonement for fin, — which the Judge of all hath received from my Surety-pried, as an a- tonement for all my fins : I have received it into my faith, as freely offered to me, — never to part with it: And I will oP/er it to God, I will ever hold it up to him; as my only, my fure, my all-fufficient ground of confidence and bol.dnefs before his throne ! idly, All who are exalted into this happy date, are under the taw of Chrift J ; the fame law, which is fummarily comprehended in the ten command- ments. They are wholly delivered from that law, redeem- ed from a being any fonger under it ; with regard to its natural form, as a Covenant-law. In this refpedt it is dead to them, and they are dead to it J, It is of no force, of no exigence upon or againft them ; as a law dencc for life on that new ground, which Luther calls the pajfive righteoufnefs ; to which he has contributed nothing, — while he is quite paflive, as to the manifeftation then made of it in his foul. It is this righteoufnefs itfelf which he then fees, by the eyes of an enlightened underftanding, in all the glorious reality and fuf- ficiency ..fit: And he claims it as his own, feeing it as God's free gift to him. His foul thus enters into that reft, as his wCl for eternity ; though by more diftinft actings of faith in fome, than in others,— yet the fame, as to the matter, in all thofe whom Chritl brings. • Pfal. lxvi. ic. | Rom. v. n, J i Cor. ix. sb.i, || Rom. vi:'. 4 6. Covenant of Grace. 245 st law requiring perfect obedience for eternal life, and curfing to eternal death for every difobedience. Wherefore, in point of rights and (fo far as they are properly exercifed) in point of fact, — they have no more ado with that Covenant-law, than a woman has with a hufband in the grave ; or than a d^ad man has ado with the laws of the country in which he formerly lived. But while they have no concern with the Cove- nant-law, in the matter of their jujlification ; they have a mod lively concern with it, according to all its extent and fpirituality, — as a rule of life or righte- oufnefs, in the matter of their fanclification. The na- tural writing of it upon their hearts, as a Covenant- law, is blotted out ; fo far as regards the reigning power thereof: And all the bias toward it which con- tinues in them, for feeking any ground of depen- dence before God in what they feel or do, — is rank* ed among the remainders of their natural corrup- tion, to be gradually purged out. In place of the natural, they are blefTed with a fupernatural writing of the moral law upon their hearts * ; entirely di- verted of the promife and penalty which naturally belongs to it as a Covenant-law. It is therefore to Chrijl that they are under the law; while he takes the moral law, in its fupernatural flate, or as diverted of its Covenant-form, — for the rule of fpiritual government in his mediatory king- dom. His true fubje&s have all their dependence upon his fervice and fufTering, by which he has ful- filled the righteoufnefs of the law for them as a Co- venant of Works : But their dependence on his righ- teoufnefs, is with a moft willing fubjection to his rule; fvveetly conftrained by his love, to live unto him. And as they live under a partial writing of the law upon their hearts, it is according to the rule of that law * Keb. vtii. jo. ;40 A View of th law as perfectly written in the Scriptures : But it\ the faith of its being diverted, with regard to them 3 of the Covenant-form which it ftill naturally bears as written there. — Thus it is, that as Chrift has thern redeemed from all iniquity, in refpecl of guilt unto, condemnation ; he has them likewife purified unto himfelf a peculiar people, zealous of good works * :. They have it for their great concern, to cleanfe them- /'elves from all fzlthinefs of the fie jh and fpirit ; perfect- ing holinefs in the fear of God f . jtf/y, All thefe who are ruled by Chrirt, as his true Jubjecls, are well provided for by him. — They have their dwelling in the glorious houfe of the New Co- venant; they dwell on high, they dwell in God: The eternal God is their refuge, and underneath are the ever- lafiing arms \. They are cleat hed with the garments of fa hat ion y covered with the robe of righteoufnefs [|. They have the richert provifion for their faith, in exceeding great and precious promifes; wherein are gi- ven unto them all things that pertain unto life and god- linefs §. The moft nourifhing and delicious food ior their fouls, and the moft efficacious medicines for all their fpiritual difeafes. — are (till at hand, in his word and ordinances; of which he makes an ap- plication to them by his Spirit, enabling them to ap- ply the fame unto themfelves. They have an abun- dance of grace in him and from him, for all their fpiritual work and warfare. — And as to their out- ward conditions, he provides for them what he fees, bed; in matters of neceflity, convenience, and com- fort : With a fpecial bleiTmg, upon both their enjoy- ments and wants. Athly, Under his protection they dwell fafely, and /hall be quiet from fear of evil**. He is their for- trefs ' Tit. if- 14. f 2 Cor. vii. 1. t Ifa. xxxiii. 16.; r John iv. 16.; Dtut. xxxiii. 27. H H" Ixi. ic §2 Pet. i. 3, 4. ** Prov. i. 3$. Covenant of Grace. 247 trefs and deliverer, their foleld and buckler * ; de- fending them againft all enemies, men and devils : Farther than as he now differs thefe to have fome pre- valence over them, for their good. He reftrains and overcomes all his and their enemies, they are made to triumph over all thefe; Chrift-myftical will finally triumph, as Chrift-perfonal hath done. However much they may be diilreffed, even deftroyed, for a time, they will have to fay in the event ; In all thefe things we are more than conquerors, through him that loved us f. $thly, Though he is fully reconciled to their per- fons, as much now as he will be in heaven for ever ; yet he is no way reconciled to their fins : Yea thefe, from the Angular aggravations thereof, are more difpleafing to him than the fins of any others. They have therefore to endure chaftening; for whom the Lord loveth he chafieneth, amd fcourgeth every fon whom he recciveth \. He will vifit their tranfgrejfion with the rod* and their iniquity with fir ipes\. He doth fo* in a manifold variety of trials or troubles, external and internal, — which he brings upon them, or fuffers them to fall into. But his difpleafure and controverfy, in all this matter, doth properly termi- nate upon their fins; and never upon their perfons, however much they may fornetimes apprehend the contrary. Their perfons are never the real objects of divine wrath or difpleafure, even under their fe- vered: chaftenings; all thefe are f til 1 from love to their perfons : Their juftification 3 rheir acceptance in theBeloved, is invariable, amidllall fuc'h contend- ings with them he will reft in his love, he will joy 0- ver them with finging §. 6thy, They are prefer ved in Jsfus Chrifl **. Their perfeverance, to the end, is infallibly fecured: Per- feverance * Pfal.xviil. 2. ; xci. 4. f Rom. viil. 37. \ Heb. xii. 6, 7. I| Pfal. lxxxix. 11. j Zsch. iii. 17, ** Jude, ver. 1. &4§ A View */" /A* feverance in the ftate of grace, — of acceptance with God, as objects of his highefl favour i perfeverance in the habit of grace, the grace of their new nature ; — and perfeverance, in the exercife of grace, accord- ing to their feveral rneafures thereof; through re- coveries from falls, and from all fpiritual indifpofi- tions. They are kept by the power of God, through faith unto falvation *. Chrill makes continual and effectual intercemori for them, that their faith fail not *. He never fails to do as he has faid, — I will inflrucl thee, and teach thee the way which thoujhaltgo ; I will guide thee with mine eye: — When thou paffeft through the waters, I will be with thee ; and through the floods, they jhall not overflow thee : When thou walkefi through the fire, thou/halt not be burnt, neither Jhall the flame kindle upon thee \. He fays to each of them, — Fear thou not, for I am with thee ; I will flrengthen thee, I will help thee, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteoufnefs ||. — They cannot but be furely and finally preferved; when they are continually in Chrift's hand, and in the Father's hand : Hands, out of which none is able to pluck them § ! jthly, They will all be brought forward unto a ftate of perfection, in holinefs and happinefs; as to both their fouls and bodies, for ever. This perfec- tion will be enjoyed in their bodies, when he (hall ap- pear the fecond time. It is enjoyed in their fouls at death ; as thefe are then made perfect in holinefs, and do immediately pafs into glory : Finding the way into it confecrated and kept open for them, by their glorious Forerunner. Then do they take their prepared place in the general affembly and church of the firfl-born which are written in heaven ; among the fpirits * i Pet. i- 5. f Luke xxii. 32. \ PfaL xxxii. 8. ; Ifa. xliii. 2. I Ifa. xli. 10. § John x. 28, 29. Covenant of Grace, 249 fpirits of jiift men made perfett *. They have a joy. ful meeting with Chrift, at their expiring on death- beds; as come for receiving them unto himfelf, that where he is there they may be alfo : Being ever intent on having them with him, in due time, where he is; that they may behold his glory f. HEAD IL Of the minifterial Accompli foment of the Covenant of Grace. The whole accomplifhment of this Covenant a- mong men, is by Jefus Chrift as Mediator. The conditionary part of it immediately belonged to him, to be perfonally fulfilled by him. As to the promif fory part of it, the primary accomplifnment of this hath been effected by God the Father upon Chrift himfelf ; fo that he got all the promifes made over to him, for effectuating the fecondary accomplifh- ment thereof upon his people: As hath been ex- plained. t Under the head of the mediatory accomplifhment of the Covenant of Grace, in the fpecial fenfe of that expreffion; a view has been taken of what Chrift hath done immediately by himfelf: As alfo of what he hath done and ftill doth immediately by his Spi- rit, through his word and ordinances. The things to be confidered under the head of the minifterial ac- complifhment of that Covenant, belongs alfo to his mediatory accomplifhment of it, according to the general fenfe of the expreffion ; but through the in- tervention of a public miniitry which he hath efta- G g blifhed * Hcb. xli. 23. f John sir* 3. j xvii. 2+» 250 A Vi ew of the blifhed, for difpenftng his ordinances in the vifiblc Church. There are ordinances 6f government and difcipline ; which he bleiTeth for forming and upholding the Church-fhte, and for maintaining the viable purity of that body. There is the ordinance of the public worfoip of God through Chrift, as performed by fo- lemn and ftated arTemblies ; in which, fo far as it is performed according to his will, he is graciouily pre- sent. There are facramental ordinances, of Bapiifm and the Lord's Supper; which he blefleth for their dif- ferent ends: As, by the one, members are initiated into the viable Church, under a folemn dedication of them to him; and, by the other, his people are efpecially fed and nourifhed — built up in holinefs and comfort, through faith unto falvation. Con- cerning all thefe ordinances, as to the nature and adminidration of them, there are various contro- verfies among particular churches : But it doth not con hit with the defign of the prefent Contemplations, to enter into thefe controverfies ; which may be found difcufTed, on all fides, in various other publi- cations. What is propofed here, is — to take fome view of the minifterial accomplifhment of the Covenant of Grace, by the great ordinance of the preaching of the gofpel; which is the fame to all particular churches, fo far as of a Chriftian Hate and management. r l he preaching of the gofpel is an ordinance which Chrift. hath initituted, for being continued in his Church through all ages. The Scriptures of the New Teftament abound with exemplary views of this great ordinance. Our Lord gave a moil exprefs commifllon to his Apoilles ; Go ye into all the zuorld, and preach the gofpel to every creature *. This com- miflion which they got, was not confined to them- felves : * Mark JKVii 1 j. Covenant of Grace. 251 felves : It comprehended all who mould be regularly employed in that work through all fucceeding a as he added, — Lo, I am with you alway even unto the end of the world*. He declared his will and pur- pole, that repentance and remijfon of Jim Jhould be preached in his name ; even among all nations, i ningat Jerufifie-mp It is a (landing article in the great myftery of godlinefs, that Chrift is preached unto the Gentiles J. This is the great mean through which the exercife of his prophetical and kingly of- fices is carried on : By which he gradually gathers fmners unto himfelf, and enables his people to build up themfelves in their moft holy faith. — It is thus an ordinance of diftinct refpe&s, to the members of th£ vifible ^vA of the invifible Church. SECT. I. Of the Ordinance ^Preaching, as it refpecls the Mem- hers of the vifible Church. § I. This ordinance is of indifpenfable necefiity in the vifible Church. — It muft be wholly conform- ed to the holy Scripture?, thefe muft afford all the matter of it; it muft contain nothing againft or be- yond them ||. But the fulnefs of the Scriptures, c- ven when the canon thereof is now completed, can- not fuperfede the necefiity of preaching. The read- ing of thefe, as alfo of other books illuftrating the fame, — is blefTed for the conviction and converfion of finners, as alfo for their fubfequent edification. Yet the benefit of them is not left, even mainly, to depend upon the reading ; a privilege which, in for- mer ages, was not commonly enjoyed: And however common now, it is only of a private nature ; nor could * Matth. xxviii. 20. f Lukt xxiv. 47. % 1 Tim. iii. 16. fl Ifa. viii. 2C 252 A View of the could it properly ferve the defigns of grace, if the Scriptures were fubjected to the precarious care of individuals about ufing that privilege, The Church is of a public ftate, to which a pub- lic difpenfation of the word is elTential; bringing it to the ears of multitudes at once, many of whom might not be capable or careful to read it. And the preaching is instituted for a profitable explaining and applying of thofe doctrines and duties which are pro- pofed in the Scriptures. It is therefore an ordi- nance of molt eminent consideration in the New Teftarnent, mentioned in it above an hundred times ; and is peculiarly blefTcd for effectuating the defigns of grace : As a believing in Chrift for falva- tion, is efpecially through a hearing of him ; from the mouth of thofe who are really fent to preach ihe go/pel of peace *, — fent forth as heralds, to proclaim the gracious edicts of the King on the holy hill of Zion. § II. This ordinance is, in general, a preaching of the gofpel of Jefus Chrift. But it is not confined to the matter of the gofpel, according to the ftri& and peculiar fenfe of this word : It doth not (imply mean a publifhing of the peculiar myiteries of Chrif- tianity; of gracious doctrines and promifes, of gra- cious offers and calls* It comprehends alfo the whole doctrine of our natural eitate of curfednefs and corruption; with the whole doctrine of the law of the Covenant of Works : According to the fubfervience of all this doctrine unto the gofpel of our falvation; a doctrine of falvation being abfurd, even inconfift- ent with common fenfe, but in connection with the doctrine of what we need to be faved from. — And the members of the vifible church, who are immediately and equally the objects of all this preaching, are here * R m. x. 14, 15. Covenant of Grace. 253 here confidered as the fame with go/pel- hearers ; all who are providentially brought within the reach of it. § III. By the ordinance of preaching, gofpel-hear- ers have an alarm founded to them about the finful- nefs and mifery of their natural eilate ; which has been fomewhat explained in another place *. That, in general, — 1/?, They have come into the world under the guilt of the nrftiin: As having been reprefented by the firft man, in the pofithe ftate which the Covenant of Works was brought into with him; having ac- cordingly finned in him and fallen with him, in his firft tranfgreflion. By one marHs difcbcdiencc, many were made finners : By the offence cf o?ie 9 judgment came upon all men to condemnation f . &dly, They have come into the world under a want of original righteoufnefs: Under a want of God's image upon their fouls, in knowledge and righteoufnefs and holinefs ; as having been forfeited by the guilt of the firfl: fin. Every one needs to be renewed — after the image cf him that created him : For there is none righteous, no not one J. 3^/j, They have come into the world with an u- niverfal corruption of nature ; fliapen in iniquity, and conceived in fin ||: With natures of an abfolutc dii- conformity and oppofition to the nature end will cf God ; having in them the feeds of ail actual tranf- greflions. 4tbfy, The corruption of their lives is anfwerable to that of their natures : They live in error § ; in a habitual courfe of eflrangement from and rebellion againft God. The wickednefs of man is great in the earth ; * Parti. Chap. VII. f Rom. v. 18, 19. $ Col. iif. 10.; Rom. iii. 10. H Pfal. U. 5. § 2 Pet. ii. 18. 254 -A View of the earth ; as every imagination of the thoughts of his heart is only evil continually *. $ihly % They are in a (late of a&uai and abfolute fuhjection to the Covenant of Works: Under an ex- action of perfect obedience to it in every point for life, though they cannot perform a real obedience to it in any point ; and under a fentence of eternal death for every difobedience: Curfed is every one that continue th not in all things which are written in the bsok of ihe law, to do them f. 6thly, They are abfolutely incapable of recover- ing themlel/es from the eftate of fin and rrnlery ; al- together without ftrength for it J. They can never difcharge the indifpeniabls c-aim of the Covenant- jaw ; in refpect of iatisfaction for fin : More than in refpect of obedience; which requires a change of their natures, in order to a proper change of life. ythly. They are not only without ftrength, but they are enemies ||: Enemies, not only to the autho- and will of God in his law; but likewife to all the device of the grace and wifdom of God for their recovery. — Their cafe is therefore abfolutely defpe- rate; fo far as can fall within the reach of any natur- al endeavours or jipprehenfions : They can have no- thing to look for, according to the Covenant law which they are under, — but to be punifhed with ever- lafling dcfmiclion from the prefencc of the Lord, and from the glory of his power §. Thefe things which can be but generally pointed out in this place, admit of great enlargements, — in folemn dealing with finners about their falvation. § IV. By the ordinance of preaching, a publica- tion is made to gofpel hearers of good tidings of great joy •*. The principal matter of the preaching to which * Gen. vi. 5. f Gal. iii. 10. t Rom. v. 6. |] Rom. v. 10. §2 Thef. i. Q. ** Luke ii. le. Covenant of Grace. 255 which that of the things abovcmentioned is fubfervi- ent, is the gofpel of falvation: — The whole doctrine of the Covenant of Grace ; as to the eftablifhment of that Covenant, and the fulfilled condition of it (in ChrirVs obedience unto death), with the great and precious promifes of it: The doclrine of the perfon of Chriil and of his mediatory offices: The doclrine of his priefthood; as to his incarnation, fervice, fuffer- ing, refurre&ion, exaltation, and intercelhon : The doctrine of the continued exercife of his prophetical and kingly offices : More particularly, the doclrine of his juitifying righteoufneis \ and of his falsifying grace. And all this wonderful doclrine is preached, not for mere amufement to the undertundings of thofe who hear it. It is preached, as the word of falva- tion Jeni unto them ; as the gofpel of their falvation, as the falvation of God fent unto the Gentiles, And, in this public difpenfation of the gofpel, there is made to all the hearers of it, immediately and equally, — a moil: gracious offer of Chrift, and all his falvation ; with a mo(t gracious call unto them, for their re- ceiving and reding upon him accordingly. — On this momentous fubjecl, the following things may be confidered *. The * What follows In this fection, is moftly extracted, though with fome variations, — from the feventh articU of an at!? about do&rine, paffed by the Affociate Synod above thirty years ago; and from an illiiflralio?i of that article, by four miniilers of the Synod, as a committee, — of whom the prcfent writer only fur- vives : And fome*parts from an appendix to thefe. He may be excufed from diftinguifhing, by marks of quotation, the paffages now borrowed from that article, illulha ion, and appendix ; be- caufe thefe were originally and altogether of his own compofi- tion : But he fo diftinguilhes what is taken from th'* article re- ferred to. The whole (concerning the gcfpel-call and the war- rant of faith) is to he feen at large, in the fecond volume or h:s Difplay of the Secrjjion-Teflimony* i$6 A View of ihc The gofpd-offer and call do proceed " upon the " foundation of the intrinjic fufficiency of the death " of Christ ; his relation of a Kinf man- redeemer to f? mankind-linners as fuch: And the promife of eter- " nal life to" them " as fuch, in the gofpei." And, i/t 9 As to the intrinfic fufficiency of our Lord's death, it lies in this: That " the atonement and " righteoufnefs of Chrift, are, in thcmfelves, of a " jullice-fatisfying and law-magnifying nature; con- Covenant of Grace. 057 idly, Chrift's relation of a Kinfman-redeemer to them, lies both in his per/on and offices. For, 1. " Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the glorious " constitution of his per/on, as God-man, Immanuet, " God with us, — doth ftand in an equal and undif- " tinguifhed relation of a Kinfman-redeemer, to man- li kind-fmners as filch," The relation here fpoken of, is not fuch as arifes from any aft of Chrift's de- fijgn or intention concerning them : But it is fuch as arifes from the conftitution of the perfon of Chrift, , in his being God-man, a Redeemer in human na- ture; and this relation can no more belong to the e- left, than to any other finners in the fame nature. Chrift indeed ftands in a very fpecial and diftin- guifhed relation of a Kinfman-redeemer, to the c- lect ; from the act of the Father's will in giving them to hiin, and the ad of his own will in undertaking for them: Which relation is wholly abftracted from, in the offer made of Chrift to them and others by the gofpel. But, as he is God manlfejl in the flcjh, bear- ing the public capacity of a Redeemer, — made un- der the law in man's nature : this makes his perfon to ftand in the relation of a Kinfman-redeemer to all mankind-finners,— without any diuinclion between the elect and others: Becaufe the elect are no other- wife finners, and no other wife men, than as all the reft of mankind are. 2. Our Lord Jefus Chrift bears this farther rela- tion x)f a Kinfman-redeemer to them; that " his me- " diatory offices, in the true and glorious nature " thereof, — do ftand in an equal and undiftinguifh- " ed relation and fuitablenefs, to the cafe and need u of mankind-finners as fuch." There is indeed a verj fpecial, a diftinguifhed relation and fuitablenefs of his offices to the elect; from his becoming an un- dertaker for them in thefe offices : Which alfo is whollv abftracted from, in the offer made of Chrift II h by 358 A View of the by the gofpel. But the relation and fuitabletfefs which arifes from the glorious nature of thefe offices, mud belong to all mankind finners, — without any didinction between the elect and others; becaufe the! cafe and need of the elect, is jud of the fame nature with that of all others : As the office of a phyfician, in its nature, is the fame way related to the condi- tion of all difeafed perions ; efpecially fuch as are all in the fame difeafe. And from the common relation of a Kinfman-re- deemer, which Chriil: thus bears to mankind, he is every way fit for being employed and reded upon by them; in his perfon, offices, atonement and righ- teoufnefs: Which is a ground of fufficient validity and extent, for the mod extenfive offer and call of the gofpel to finners of mankind. $dly 9 There are " abfolute promifes of judification ct and eternal life through Chrid, to mankind-fin- " ners as fuch, in the gofpel; the pofiefTion of " which bleflings is to be certainly obtained, in the Ci way of believing." In the original tranfaction of the New Covenant, all the promifes bear a fpecial and particular direc- tion to the elecl, — all their names being, as it were, feverally recorded therein: So that the promifes, as there laid, are an expreffion of God's gracious pur- pofe concerning each of them particularly, and them only. But the matter is far otherwifc, in the adminiftraiion of that Covenant by the gofpel. For the gofpel, as it were, brings forth an extract from that glorious original, — in which extract, the pro- mifes bear an indefinite direction; a blank being left, where the names of the elect are recorded in the ori- ginal : So that thefe promifes, as laid out to men in the gofpel, do abdract from all regard to any as cicely — to any more than others; or they have a re- fpect to them only 2& finners of mankind. And Covenant of Grace. 259 And thefe abfolute promifcs to them in the gofpel, are not to be immediately confidered as an expremon pf God's purpofe, — or as a declaring of what he will do, in the performance thereof; but they are to be immediately confidered, as an expreflion of God's free offer fo to do and perform. And this offer is e- qualiy made to every hearer of the gofpel, warrant- ing them all to apprehend and apply the promiles by faith: While the pofleilion of all promiied bteflings is to be certainly obtained in the way of believing ; the Lord never failing to f u ft ain faith's appropriation of the promifes, fo as to perform the fame unto all believers. Neither are thefe promifes to be confider- ed, as an expreflion or declaration of God's purpofe to any in particular, but as they come to be accep- ted and reded upon; or as perfons are determined to fill up their names in the blank, by the hand of an applying faith: Which all gefpel hearers arc equally and immediately warranted to do, by God's oiler and call. Such then is the direction and indorfement which the abfolute promifes of juftification and eternal life, through Chrift, do bear to mankind-fmners indefi- nitely ; in the difpenfation of the gofpel: And fuch is the claim they have to thefe promifes, a claim e- very way fuflicient to faith ; having no dependence on God's intention or defign, as to thofe for whom the promifes were originally made. And feeing they make an exhibition of Chrift to all gofpel hear- ers, — in his perfon, offices, atonement and righte- oufnefs; or do bring him and his falvaticm to every Tinner's door, in a full and free offer: This is a glo- rious foundation, a fumcient ground, — for the gene- ral call of the gofpel. Moreover, this call is not man's, but God's: There is " an interpofal of divine authority in the " gofpel call; immediately requiring all the hearers * V « thereof i6o A View of the " thereof to receive and reft upon Christ alone for " falvation, as he is freely offered to them in the " gofpel." And from this call of divine authority, upon the fufficient foundation which has been consi- dered ; dly, As faith is a receiving of Chrift, its receiv- ing act is an ad of belief or perfuafion. It truly re- ceives ; as the eye receives light, as thre hand receives a gift, or as the mouth receives food. But while it thus receives from God, as he reaches out the bleffing # A6ls x- 43. Covenant of Grace. 263 bleffing in the word of grace, and fo receives what the perfon formerly had not ; this is juft a believing that he presently has it all for his own, as prefentlf fuflained to be fo s at the bar of law and jufticc . It is therefore an appropriating pcrfuafton which be- longs to the nature of faith: Greatly differing from- that fenfible atfurance of an intereft in Ghrift, or of falvation, which arifes from a view or the i. work in the heart ; or which we are privileged . — when ike Spirit itfelf beareih witnefs 1. r fp* L rit 9 that we are the- children of Gcd. Without any re- fpecr, to divine purpofes and intentions, or to perfon's inward experiences ; an appropriating faith proceeds wholly upon the prefent revelation of Chrift: in the gofpel. There it finds an object, fully fuitable and fatisfy- ing; even the glorious perfon and offices of Chrift, with his fatisfaction and righteoufnefs, — as in them- felves confidered. And it takes up a fufficient ground, a full warrant, for apptopriatlng this glorious objetr, to the perfon's felf ; with a firm perfuafion of an intereft therein to eternal life: Juft as it finds the fame freely and equally fet forth by the gofpel, unto all the hearers thereof; with the gracious call and abfolute promifes which accompany that exhibition of Chrift. The perfon fees that he would be a rejec- ter of the whole, if he did not believe with an appro- priation of the whole to himfelf; while the revelation of grace is made to him for this purpofe, or for none at all. — Such a wonderful power and privilege it is, which God beftows on true faith, — that he makes all to be perfonally and favingly a man's own i juft as the man is taking all to himfelf, and making all his own, by an appropriating perfuafion of faith. 4//j/y, This faith is Tifuper -natural perfuafion ; it is the gift of God, of the operation of God*: What no man is * Kph. Ji. 8. ; Col. ii. 12. 26*4 A View of the is capable of working out in himfelf, as all his natural apprehenfions and inclinations (land in oppofition to it. The offers and calls of the gofpel can never be truly underftood and acquiefced in, by common fenlc or reafon ; for they are among the things of the Spirit of God) which the natural man receiveth not, neither can know. But the Lord powerfully works this faith, in the fouls of his own elect. The gofpel comes unto them^ not in wcrdonly; but alfo in poivcr. The Holy Spirit becomes unto them, the Spirit of wifdom and revela- tion in the knowledge of Chrift ; And the eyes of their under/landing are enlightened. — Then it is, that their particular accefs to Chrift in the outward offer of the gofpel, with their immediate warrant to appropriate redemption through his blood,-— becomes a matter of powerful demonftration to them, by which they are pleafantly conftrained to the obedience of faith. 5 ;/?.;', All the hearers of gofpel, who remain and perim in their unbelief, muft prove utterly in- excufeable; without having any degree of apology for themfelves, from the doctrine of particular re* demption. — For all the particularity that takes place in the doctrine of redemption, ftrikes againft none in the way of their entertaining any concern about falvation through Chrift. It has a tremendous af- pefl upon finners, — only in the way of their fetting at nought all the Lord's counfel, and defpifing all his reproof. They have the fame offers of falvation, with the fame invitations to receive and reft upon Chrift, that others have: And they cannot pretend that others, who come to Chrift and are faved, have any better ground than they to go upon; while o- thers find the fame ground to be fufficient, for draw- ing near in full affurance of faith. Neither can they pretend, that any fuppofed want of accefs and war- rant, is the rqafon of their not coming to Chrift : For Covenant of Grace. 16$ For the reafori lies in a love of their finful condition, with enmity againft falvation from fin ; and againft the glorious method of falvation through Chriit, in a way of free grac- 3 . In a word, they have no (ha- dow of excufe ; as if they had found themfelves any way debarred from Chrift, and left under any ne- reifity of perilhing without him : Seeing all their e- itrangement from Chrift is voluntary, or a matter of their free choice ; and the tenor of their indictment mult be to this elTecl, — That they hated knowledge, and did not chufe the fear of the Lord. Never ihelefs, the foundation of God ftandeth fure ; having this ft al, The Lord knoweth them that are his *. Through every generation in the vifible Church, the cafe will be ; that while the reft were blinded, the e* leclion hath obtained it f, — hath obtained a place in the Church invifible, of thofe who are faved. SECT. II. Of the Ordinance cf Preaching, as it refpecls the Members cf the invifible Church. This ordinance has a primary refpect to men as finners, providentially under the difpenfation of the gofpel in the vifible Church: But it has zfecondary refpecl to men as faints, conftituted members of the invifible Church. It finds them in the (late of na- ture ; but is blefled for bringing them into rhe ftate of grace : And, as in this Irate, it is of a peculiar fuitablenefs to them. The preaching which is adapt-* ed to men as fmners, is of a direct benefit to faints alio ; as thefe have (till to mind and perfevere in their fir ft work, of coming to Chriit. And the preach- ing which is adapted to men as faints, may be occa- fionally of benefit to finners alio ; for begctttog ill 1 i them * 2 Tim, ii. 19. f Rom. xi. 7. 166 A View of the them a concern about attaining to thofe experiences and exercifes, which they hear of others being ac- quainted with. The preachers of the gofpel, have to fludy a rightly dividing the word of truth; to give to the hearers, feverally, their portion of meat in due fea- fon *. As their firft bufinefs is about the ingather- ing of finners ; their next bufinefs is about the up- building of faints, the members of the invifible Church. And, § I. The members of the invifible Church, or true Chriftians, are the Lord's hidden ones f ; they are fo, as in refpect of fecurity, fo likewife in refpecl: of fecreey. The Lord knoweth moft particularly who they are, as to all the individuals of them. They may abfolutely know themfelves to be of that happy number, in their faith of falvation ; and when the Spirit itfelf beareth witnefs with their fpirits, that they are the children of God I : Though they are often much in the dark on this fubjecl. But others about them cannot know them with abfolute certainty ', to be fuch perfons : Nor can preachers of the gofpel dif- tinguifh them particularly from others, with a cer- tain knowledge of them, as objects of their peculiar addrefs in that difpenfation. But it is certain, that there are always fuch per- fons in the viiible Church ; that the fucceffion of them in it can never fail, where the truths and or- dinances of Chrift are properly difpenfed. Chrifl has always a feed to ferve him ; he will without any inf'.rruption, have fome to fear him as long as the fun and moon endure ', throughout all generations ||. And the preachers of the gofpel are warranted to confider all perfons as fuch, who bear a credible appearance of * 2 Tim. ii. 15. ; Luke xii. 42. + Pfal. lxxxiif. 3. % Rom. viii. 16. IJ Pfal. xxii. 30. ; lxxii. 5. Covenant of Grace. 267 of being fo, — in refpedt of their Chriftian knowledge and converfation. § II. The apoftolical preaching was certainly con- formed to the apoftolical epiftles. And thefe are peculiarly addreiied to the members of the invilible Church, or to true Chriftians as fuch: To the faints, fanClified in Cbrifl Jefus ; faint s^ and faithful brethren in Chrif ; begotten again unto a lively hope, by the re- fur reel ion of Jefus Chrifl from the dead ; fanclifed by God the Father, and preferred in Jefus Chrifl; having obtained like precious faith with the Apoftles them- felves. All this is fo evident in the front of mod of thefe epiftles, that it needs not be afcertained by particular quotations. With perfons of fuch characters the Apoftles had principally ado, in the chuiches then eftablilhed ; which were gathered into a church-ftate, through the primary exercife of their commiftion to preach the go/pel to every creature. The profeffion of Chriftiani- ty was not then the prevailing fafhion ; men had fel- dom any felfifh intereft to be ferved by it ; and they were expofed to manifold fufferings on account of it: So that the Churches were then, almoft wholly, com- pofed of perfons who bore a credible appearance of being Chriftians indeed. — x\nd this apoftolical ex- ample is a ftanding rule, for preaching the golpel with a peculiar adclrefs to the members of inviiibie Church. - § III. The preaching of the gofpel is to be fo ;. drefted to them, in a manner fuited to their pcculi.i ftate ; for their injlrudion in right c ouj nefs : Asa mean which the Lord doth blefs for promoting the:. ritual knowledge, experience and exercife; their growth in grace and knowledge; and for building them up in their m«ft holy faith, — till they all come, in 268 A View of the in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge f the Sort, of God, unto a perfecl man ; unto the ineajiirt of the fiat are of the fulnefs of Chrifi *. They arc thus to be fed and nourifhed, confirmed and comforted ; and guarded againfl: all errors prevailing in their time. The apoffolical writings do richly abound, in exam : pies and directions, for that peculiar difpenfation of the gofpel to true Chrifi ians ; upon which it is not needful to enlarge in this place. § IV. The ordinance of preaching is especially concerned with the members of the invifible Church, to fortify them againfl temptations ; as alio to give them proper reproof and correction, — -with regard to any errors which they may be feduced into, and whatever mifappreheniions of truth or duty they may entertain. They are like wife to be thereby in flruc- ted about, and excited unto their Chriflian work and warfare : That their converfatich be as it hecomcth the gofpei of Chrifi., that they may adorn the dotlrtne of God cur Saviour in all things ; that they which have believed in God, be careful to mdntain good works], They are to be taught, that as they have betake?,! themfelves to the righteoufneis of Chrifi:, for the ■{unification of their perfons through faith in him ; fo they fhould ihidy a juftifi cation of their faith by their good works, to /hew their faith by their works, — as faith without works is dead \. An immecliare preaching up of moral duties is wholly unfcriptnral, and quire vain; otherwife than in being addrefl'ed to perfons, confidered as members of the invifible Church. Gofpel hearers mould be called to the performance of duties, only in the way of betaking themfelves to Chriil by faith, as the rirft of all their duties; for deliverance in him, from the law * Epli. iv. 13. -]• Phil, i. 27.; Tit. ii. 10; iii. 8. \ James ii. l8- z5. Covenant of Grace. 269 hwtf as a Covenant of Works : Taking up their depen- dence before God for juftification, upon his fulfilling of that law as a Covenant; and upon his grace, for enabling them to ftudy holinefs in all manner of cpnverfeion, — according to that law as a rule cf righteoufnefs in Jan&ification, and under a fweet conftraint of his love. — All other preaching up cf duties, is but a calling people, to eJtabJijh their own twhteoufntfs *; and a calling them to what is able- lutely impracticable. It is an amufing of them with fancies about good works which can never be reali- zed ; and a promoting of their natural oppofition to the gofpcl of Chi iit, unto their eternal perdition. § V. The ordinance of preaching is efpeciaiiy con- cerned with the members of the invifible Church, as perfons redeemed from the earth ; in calling them from earth to heaven : That, as rifen with Chrif> they fhould feek thofe things which are above, where Chnfl fiiteth on the right hand of God, — that they fhould fet their affecl'ion on things above, not on things on the earth: Looking for that blefjed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God, and our Saviour Jifus Chrifi f. They are to be dealt with for con- feiiing, in their exercife and behaviour, thai they are f rangers and pilgrims on the earth ; and therefore, to have their convcrfation in heaven \. They are to be cautioned againft earthlinefs, and called unto heavenlinefs of mind: Prefling forward through the militant, toward the triumphant ftatc of the Church. — thus it is, that the Gofpel-minidry muft carry them to death's door ; leaving them there in ChriiVs hand, for ever. And fo, the Covenant of Grace comes to have its full ac complement in time ; with regard * Rom. x. 3. f Rev. xiv. 3; C\l iff. 1 j 2. ; Tit* il« t Heb. xi. 13. 5 Phil. ill. 20. " 270 A View of the regard to the fouls of thofe for whom it was eftablijh- cdfrom eternity. tj^V4T Uii4.ix »tfU^ri ; 1 1 1 i:px&zjz^zf^'.:ix^y&icizia:iltt^sZ;i3r&tfnnv^^ PERIOD III. Of the Efted of the Covenant of Grace through Eter- nity. THOUGH the Covenant of Works had not been broken, this world muft have come to an end of its temporal (late; but fuch as we can have no particular conception of. The fucceflion of times, feafons, generations, events and revolutions which belong to it in that ftate, — could not have been for ever. Man was not, yea could not be defigned for an eternity of animal life; to be debarred for ever from all immediate enjoyment of God, or other wife than through the intervention of animal enjoyments and exercifes. Had all mankind been left to pe- rifh in the ftate of fm and mifery, this world muft have come to a mod horrible end ; by the powerful and unmixed vengeance of God. But it muft have flood through a courfe of time, in fuch a condition as could ferve for the propagation of mankind ; till all the children of wrath mould be brought forth. Under the Covenant of Grace, this world is hallening to an end; but an end, with regard to mankind, of a very mixed nature: The Jufiice of God then to mine forth in all its glory, to the full and everlafting perdition of thofe under the broken Covenant of Works ; and the Grace of God then to mine Covenant 0/ Grace. 271 shine forth in all its glory, to the full and everlaft- ing falvation of thofe under the Covenant of Grace *. Such will be the mod dreadful and defirable events of the great day, the lad and greateit of all days ; when the fun, moon and ftars, (hall have nniihed their courfes : When the heavens Jlmll pafs away with a great noife, and the elements Jhall melt with fervent heat ; the earth alfo, and the works thai are therein, Jhall be burnt up f. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and the fon of man, — will then come in his glory; in the glory of his Father with all the holy angels : Then Jhall he Jit upon the throne of his glory ; and every eye Jlmll fee him J. He will make fuch an appearance in that day, on a great white throne, that the earth and the heaven Jhall fly away from his face ; and there will be found no place for them || : How much lefs mail the workers of ini- quity be able to abide the day of his coming, and to Itand when he appeareth ! He will molt graciouf- ly raife up the bodies of all his people in that day, through a joyful miniflry of angels ; without fuffering any devil to come near their graves : He will fafhion them like unto his glorious body, as happily reunited to their fouls: which he will bring with him from hea- ven, for thar purpofe. By his powerful voice, the bodies of all the other dead will be judicially raifed, amidfl a fwarm of devils; unto a horrible reunion with their fouls, then brought from hell : And before him fh all be gathered all nations § . In the day appointed for thefe greater!; of all e- vents, He will judge the world in righteoufnefs ** : When a full and final decifion will be made on his fide, of all controverfies that were ever ftated againft his interefts; fo that Atheifts and Deifts, and all blafphemers * Part I. Chap. I. Sea. V. Inf. I. f 2 Pet. Hi. 10. t Mark viii. 38.; Matth. xxv. 31,; Rev. i. 7. [J Rev. xx. 11. § Matth. xxv. 32. *• A6s xvii. 31. 272 // View of the blafpherners of the glorious TflREii-iwr-OtfE, with all the enemies of truth and duty, — will (land in a itate of felf-condemnation before him. He wil judge de- vils and wicked men, in all the giory of his media- tory perfon : Though that will not be properly a mediatory work ; as no mediation could be requi- fite, for procuring their deferved judgment to con- demnation. But he will have a glorious mediatory work, in the judging of his own people; when he Jhall come to be glorified in his faints , and to be admired in all them that believe * ; As they (hall be openly acknowledged and acquitted by him, in that day. The Scripture-teitimony, upon all this high lub- ject, could afford great enlargements ; which are not thought proper to be made here. The iffue of the whole will be, — that the wicked will go away into e- verlafling punijhment^ but the righteous into life eter- nal \. And it is the fpecial intention at prefent, — > to confider the Effect of the Covenant of Grace in heaven for ever, after the judgment of the great day; with regard to both Christ and Ghriflians* SECT. I. Of the Effect of the Covenant of Grace through Eter- nity vjnh regard to Christ. 5 I. Jesus Christ will fit upon the throne of his glory for ever, in all the truth of manhood as well as of Godhead : He will be ever the fame in his media- tory perfon, God-man; but how marvellouily changed from what he once was, — in the manger, on the crofs, in the fepulchre ! He carried his humanity to heaven in the view of his difciples; no way dropped it when he afcended, as Elijah did his mantle: And the fame J(fus, in the fame humanity, will come again at the laft * 2ThcfT. i. 10. f Matth. xxv. 46. Covenant of Grace. 273 laft day ; fo as every eye Jhall fee him. He will then return to heaven, with all his redeemed company, to dwell amon^ them for ever ; as ftill the fame Jefus, inhabiting their nature. From his love to them which paffeth knowledge, he loved their nature unto that afTumption of it; and this wonderful love can never admit of his feparating himfelf from it or them. He will have the fame account to give of himfelf to them for ever, that he once gave of himfelf to the Apoftle John : I am he that liveth (eflentially the liv- ing one), and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore *, — evermore, as having ftill the fame man- hood in which he was once dead. He took pofifef- fion of the throne when he afcended, as Jefus of Na- zareth ; a character which belongs to him, only as in human nature, — never to be afhamed of his former meannefs in it: And what he now is upon the throne, he ever will be ; the man Chrifl Jefus f. He will thus appear, through eternity, in the higheft glory of his conititutional name, Immanuel, God with us; with us, in our nature : With all the redeemed in heaven for ever, as his brethren in the fame nature. He will ever be, in the midft of the throne, a Lamb as it had been Jlain \ : A character which belongs to him only in manhood, in which he had once made a facrifice of him (elf. And it would feem that his glorious body in heaven, through eternity, will re- tain the marks of his crucifixion. How this may be, we cannot conceive : But it is certain, that he ap- peared to his diicipies with thefe marks, in his glo- rified body as rifen from the dead ||. There is no fig- nification in Scripture, as if the martyrs of Jefus would thus retain any marks of what they had fuf- fered in their bodies : As their fufferings had no me- rit in them ; theie no wav belong to the ground of K k their * Rev. i. 18. f Aas xxi!. 8.: I Tim. ii. 5. ± Rev. v. 6. || Lukexxiv. 39, 40.; John xx. 27. 274 A View of the their place and (landing in heaven. But the glori- fied date of human nature in the perfon of Chrift, and the prefence of the redeemed with him in hea- ven, — mult all depend for ever upon his fufferings in that nature. How fit and ravifhing is it then, that thefe mould be for ever exhibited in the very form of his mediatory perfon ! And though the infinite glory of his Godhead was once vailed by his manhood 9 it will not be fo in hea- ven : It will fhine forth* without any, obdru&ion, through his glorious body ; to the adonifhed per- ception of human eyes. The glory of all the divine perfections, the infinitely diffufive rays of all that glory, will be concentrated in the perfon God-man, as come down into a mod wonderful nearnefs to re- deemed men, of mod wonderful perceptibility by them. § II. Jesus Christ will fit on his throne for ever* in the fulled glory of his prophetical office. He will retain his mediatory ftate in heaven through eternity, as infeparable from the retaining of his manhood : And, particularly, he will continue for ever in the office of a Prophet. There will be no occafion then for fuch exercife of it as now, by either outward or inward revelation. But the perpetuity of knowledge, light and fight among the redeemed, will depend u- pon his continued influence in that office. From hence only, they will continue to be filled with the knowledge of his will, in all wifdom and Jpiritual an- der/landing*. He will fhine forth among them as the Sun of Rightcoufnefs^ for ever in his meridian- glory : And the continuance of the glorious light in them, will depend upon their being ever filled with emanations of light from him ; fo that a failure of thefe for one moment, would leave them in utter dark- * Col.i. 9. Covenant of Grace. 275 darknefs. But there jhall be no night there \ in the heavenly Jerufalem; for the glory of God will lighten it, and the Lamb fhall be the light thereof*, rrom that everlafting influence of his prophetical office, each of the redeemed will have to fay through eter- nity, in a far higher ftrain than they could ever do. in time, — The Lord is my light, and my falvation. § III. Jesus Christ will fit on his throne for e- ver, in the fulled glory of his frkfily office. He will not ceafe, in the eternal llate, more than now, to be a priefi upon his throne^. The full atonement which he formerly made, and the everlafting righteoufnefs which he then brought in, — are what he will for ever be making a glorious exhibition of, on behalf of all the redeemed; as the whole ground of their admif- fion into heaven, and everlafting countinuance there. That former exercife of his priefthood on earth, will never be out o.f their eye > nor will they ever claim any other holding for eternal life :. Saying to him, in a continued fong of praife, — Thou waft flain, and haft redeemed us to God by thy blood \. As it is upon the permanent virtue of his prieftly office, finally exercifed on earth in the fnedding of his precious blood, that their heavenly (late will depend for ever> fo this will be through a perpetuity of his inter ceffion for them : Every moment of their continuance in heaven, as well as their firft accefs into it, mud de- pend immediately upon the unceafing permanence of of his glorious fay ; Father, I will that they whom thou haft given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory ||. § IV. Jesus Christ will fit on his throne for e- ver, in the fulled glory of his kingly office. As he hath an effential kingdom now, in the difpenfations of * Rev. xxl. 23. ; xxii. 5. + Zcch. vi. 13. % Rev. v. 9. {J John xvii. 24. 276 A View of the of Providence ; he hath likewife a mediatory king- dom, in the difpenfations of grace : And this king- dom will endure for ever, when grace fhall be per- fected in glory. This is a n ever lofting dominion , which fhall ?iot pafs away ; his kingdom, which /bail never be deflroyed: It fhall Jiand for ever-, and of his kingdom there fhall be no end *. When the Father conftituted him a mediatory King, it was with this aiiurance, — Thy throne, O God, is for ever, and ever \. As Me- diator, he has all -power given to him ; not only in earth, but likewife in heaven : And this gift can i>e» ver be revoked, or abclifhed. He will therefore reign for ever in heaven, as the King of faints ; the imme- diate object of all their homage and obedience. When the (late of eternal glory takes place^ — as the throne of God, fo likewife of the Lamb, fhall be in it ; and his fervants fhall fervt him J. Then indeed, — he fhall have delivered up the king- dom to God, even the Father |] r Giving a mod full and faithful account of ail the adminiftration of his mediatory kingdom in the ftate of grace; fo that he will then have to fay, about his work of application, as formerly about his work of purchaie, — // isfinijh- ed. And he will then prefent unto the Father, the completed Mate of his mediatory kingdom, in the whole glorified body of his redeemed iubjects ; fay- ing, — Behold I, and the children whom the Lord hath given me §. His mediatory kingdom, in ail ihe gra- cious fiate, or gracious form and adminiftration of it, will thus be at an end for ever. — And then JJjall the Son be fabjecl to him that put all things under hinu He had been fu before, during the gracious (late of his mediatory kingdom ; and he mail then dill be fo, af- ter delivering up that ftate of his kingdom to the Fa- ther. Yet this he never could nor can be, as the Son; * Dan. ii. 44; vli. 1 ^. ; Luke i. 33. f Pfal. xlv. 6. $• llev. xxii. 3. (I 1 Cor. xv- 24, 28. § Ifa. *iii. 18. Covenant of Grace. 277 Son ; for, in this refpect, he is necefiadly the fam in Jubilance with the Father. — 'equal in power and in glory. But he fhall then be fubjecl, only in the fenfe of mediatory fubordination ; which therefore fhall endure for ever, in the perfect and permanent glory of all his mediatory offices. The only fubjeel ion which can be meant in this pace, confidently with his iu~ preme Godhead, — is an unanswerable argument lor the eternity of his mediatory ftate and kingdom in heaven. — And God (hall be all in all: The Godhead, in the perfons of the Father and Son and Spirit, pe- culiarly manifefted in the perfon of the Mediator, — fha!l be the immediate fountain of all bleffcdnefs in all the redeemed ; without any further intervention of means or ordinances. § V. Jesus Christ will lit on his throne for ever, as an object of worfbip to all his bletTed creatures in heaven. That edict which God the Father publifhed, at bringing the fir ft- begotten into the ivorld, has not, nor ever will be recalled ; Let all the angels of God worftjip him* . If he was an object of worfhip to an- gels, amidft all the meannefs of his humbled eftate : he muft more eminently be fo, as he is now glorified. There will be for ever, round about the throne, the voice of many angels, — in number ten thcufand times ten thoufand, and thoufands of thoufands\ faying with a loud voice i — Worthy is the Lamb that was Jlain to re- ceive (in worfhipping afcriptions) power^ and r. andivifdom, and ftrcngth, and honour, and glory, and blejfing: They will ever fall before the throne m their faces, andwcrfJjip God in manhood upon that throne f. Inftead of envying, they will be ever applauding the fovereignty of grace, — in the exaltation of a nature, originally much inferior to theirs, unto a far fuperioi Heb. + Rev. V. II. 12, 27 8 A View of the and inconceivable ftate of glory in the perfon of Chrift. But, in a fpecial manner, all the redeemed will be for ever worfhipping the Lamb in the midft of the throne-; they will ever fall dozvn and worjhip him, cafling their crowns before the throne, in the deepeft and mod joyful adoration: Their everlafting fong of worfhip will be, — Unto him that loved us, andwajhed us from our fins in his own blood ; and hath redeemed us to God, out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation ; to him be glory and dominion, for ever and ever. A?nen *. I his will be an immediate worfhip, in their direct beholding of him, no more through a vail of means or ordinances: And an unceafing worfhip, without any wearinefs ; in a perfection of degrees, as well as of parts. — Such will ever be the infinite glory, and honour, and bleflednefs of Jesus Christ, as Mediator : The very fame perfon who was once a man of forrows and acquainted with griefs ; who had once hung mod ignominioufly, as well as painfully, upon the crofs! SECT. II. Of the Effect of the Covenant of Grace through Eter- nity with regard to Chriftians. Many nominal Chriftians will have no place in the hezvenly ftate : But all true Chriftians, who were of old elected to eternal life, will be there for ever, — without an exception of one ; in a (late of e- ternal glory. However far the bodies of all thofe will then be fpiritual, they will not absolutely ceafe to be materi- al: And fuch material beings, in a glorified condi- tion, mull have a material refidence; filled with a perfecl: v Rev. 1. 5, 6.; iv. io. ; x. 8, 9, 14. Covenant of Grace. 279 perfect light of the divine glory. — This refidence is varioufly fet forth in Scripture. It is called new hea- vens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth rightcoufnefs : The city of the living Qod, the heavenly Jerufalem ; a city which was reprefented to the Apoftle John, in characters of moil lingular and amazing glory : A houfe not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Yet how far thefe accounts are to be taken in a lite- ral, or how far in a figurative fenfc, cannot now be determined : And this whole matter is too incon- ceivable by mortals, for prefuming to deal in any particular conjectures about it.-— But that land of promife, that city of the living God, that heavenly houfe, fuch as it Jhall prove to be, — will be for ever filled with glorious inhabitants of redeemed mankind* And we may obferve, that, § I. They will be for ever above, in a ftate of glorious perfection . — When Jefus Chrift, defcending from heaven, (hall fulfil his gracious undertaking to raife them at the lad day; the body of each will be raifed in incorruption, in glory, in power : It will be raifed a fpiritual body, fuch as we cannot now con- ceive of; never more to be any encumbrance to the foul, in its moft fpiritual employments: For this cor- ruptible mujl put on incorruption, and this mortal mud put on immortality *. He will thus change their vile body, that it may be fafloioned like unto his glorious bo- dy ; in the higheft ftate of perfection that matter can admit off. There is a great difference of glory in ctleftial bodies, and bodies terrcjlrial; there is one glo- ry °f the fun, and another glory of the moon, and ano- ther glory of the Jlars \: Yet all this is as nothing, to the vafl difference betwixt the bodies of faints in their moral 1 Cor. xv. 42, 43, 44, 53. f Phil. i. 21 l Cor. xv. 40, 41. 280 A View of the mortal ftate, — and the fame bodies in the ft ate of glory. But, efpecially, their fouls will then be in (late of glorious perfection; all the^apacities or faculties thereof will be enlarged in all, as much as their fi- nite natures can ad nit of. The foul taken to hea- ven from the womb will be no way inferior, in this refpect, to that which was releafed from the body in the ripeft years : For the child Jhall die an hundred years old*. They will all fee face to face, fully qua- lified for that fight ; and Jhall all know, even as alfo they are known f ; Than which there can be nothing higher, in creature-capacity and attainment. Then that which is perfeel will come : For the fpi- rits ofjufi men will then be finally made perfeel, in re- union with their glorified bodies J. There are great differences among them in their (late of grace ; as in the fociety of infants, children, and men of full age: But then they will all be come unto a perfect man, un- to the meafure of the fiat ure of the futnefs of Chrift |j ; which mud be the fame Mature in all. And then fhdl the righteous, all and each, Jhine forth as the fun in the kingdom of their Father § . Their juftification and adoption are perfect in their (late of grace, equally fo with all, — as to the real nature of thefe high privileges; though very often much out of light. But all of them will equally en- joy a perfect and molt blifsfal appreheniion thereof in their heavenly if ate : Each having a mod raviih- ing fenfe of their Fu! ice - stance in the favour of God, with the highest endearments of children. — And they will all be perfeel:. -11 equally P.), in their fan- clification : As all made like Cnriit, when they Jhall fee him as he is ; hoiy and without blame before God in love? * lfa. kv. 2C. j- i Cor. xiii, 12. 1 1 Cor. xiii. ic ; Heb. xii. 23. •J Eph. iv. 13. § Matth. xiii. 43. Covenant of Grace. j8i love, — not having f pet, or wrinkle, or any fuch thing ; all equally walking with him in white raiment # . They will then be made kings and pricjis unto God: • — Kings ; partaking in Chrift's glorious dominion o- ver all his and their enemies, as all of them will be raifed up to fit with htm on his throne: And Priefls , in an eternal miniftry of thank-offerings, on the ground of the peace-offering which he made of him- felff. Their heavenly glory is reprefented in figurative terms ; by way of allufion to the highefl matters of earthly glory. They will be made to inherit the kingdom prepared for them: They will receive a crown of life, a crown of glory ; as in a mod glorious and triumphant (late of eternal life : And a crown of righ- teoufnefs ; all appearing in the full glory of the medi- atory righteoufnefs put upon them, as meritorious of all their triumphant life J. And as it is the fame kingdom that all will enjoy, it mud be the fame crown that all will wear; becaufe the crown of medi- atory righteoufnefs, comprehending the whole, is but one and the fame to all. Such will be their ftate of perfection, in refpect of both capacity and enjoyment: So that Chrifl will then be glorified in his faints, and admired in all them that believe ; as all brought to appear with him in glory, glorified together |j. Every overcomer in the Chriftian warfare jhall inherit all things, in him as heir of all things ; they fh all reign for ever and ever § . —The glorious perfection of each in that ftatc will exclude all deficiency : And, if it could admit of any addition in the fame kind, it would not be per- fection. L 1 Each * x John Hi. 2. ; Eph. i. 4. ; v. 27. ; Rev. iii. 5. f Rev. i. 6. ; v. 10. ; iii. 2 I. t Matth. xxv. 34. ; Rev. ii. 10.; I Pet. v. 4. ; 2 Tun. if, 3. || 2 ThefT. ii. 10.; Col. iii. 4. j Rom. tiii. 17. § Rev. xxi. 7.; xxil. J. 282 A View of the Each of the redeemed will then, in the high fenfc of that Scripture, be filled with all the fulnefs of God; they will have a full enjoying of God, entering in- to the joy of their Lord : And God will be all in alk- ali, not lefs or more in fome, but the fame in all*. If David had to fay, in his gracious enjoyment, My cup runneth over ; much more will each of the re- deemed have to fay fo, in their enjoyment of glory; — when they fhall be bleffed with incomprehenfible fulnefs of joy; not fimply entering into them, but they into it : As God will dill be able to do exceeding abundantly, in the experience of each, above the widen: compafs of their thoughts f . It muft therefore belong to their perfection, the tunning over of their cup, — ^that the enjoyment and glory of each mould not only equal, but exceed his own conception. Could one conceive of another as fuperior to him in the fame kind, then his con- ception would be wider than his own attainment ; which could not confift with perfection in that at- tainment : And there can be no place in heaven for this direction and duty belonging to the flate of grace ; Let your conversation be without covetoufnefs^ and be content with fuch things as ye have, — not en- vying one another \. As to the orders of angels mentioned in Scripture, — if thefe do not only mean their different ranks of employment as miniftering fpirits; it would feem, that the fame mud refer to a difference in their na- tures : For were they of different orders in the fame nature or kind, they could not all be perfect in that kind. But the redeemed are all of the fame nature; and will be for ever employed in the fame glorious miniflry. There * Eph. iii. f 9. ; Mattli. xxv. 21. 23. ; 1 Cor. xv. 28. f Pfal. xxiii. 5. ; xvi. 11.; Eph. iii. 20. % Hcb, xiii. 5. j Gal. v. 26. Covenant of Grace. 183 There can be no place in heaven, for the Popifh imagination upon this fubject; that the proportions of the merit of good works, of ufefulnefs and at- tainments on earth, — will entitle unto and obtain proportionable rewards in heaven. For no crea- ture-merit can be pleaded or acknowledged there. All that faints were and had and did of any good on earth, was all of mere grace; they made not them- felves to differ: And eternal life, as fully enjoyed in heaven, will be wholly the gift of God *. The rich grace of God, mere grace, will ever be celebrated in heaven; as the original of all their glory. Saints who were of very different fizes when on earth, but all come to the ftature of the fulnefs of Chrifl in hea- ven, — will be falling equally down, as it were flat upon their faces, before the throne; afcribing all their place, and bleffednefs, and glory, — to the free grace of God, and of the Lamb that was llain. § II. They will be for ever above, in a ftate of glorious union with Chrifl. — There is a molt won- derful union between Chrifl and them, in their ftate of grace. He and they are legally one : They are fuftained, when brought into the (late of juftifica- tion, as one with him, in the eye of the Jaw of the Covenant of Works,; as having ferved and fuffered under that law, to the fartheft extent of its precepts and penalty, in him as their reprefenting head. — And they are fpiritually one with him, in their ftate of regeneration ;. which is indeed a great my fiery : He and they are one fpirit ; they are one body, of which he is the head and they the members : They are in him, as the branches are in the vine ; and he liveth in them, as they alfo live in them, — mutually and myfterioufly in each other f . Nor is this union be- tween * Rom. vi. 23. f Eph. v. 30, 32.; I Cor. ri. 17. ; xii. 12.; John xv. i } — 5.; Gal. ii. 2D. i$4- 23. I John vi. 46. X ^ cv - *"» l2t Covenant of Grace. 285 flriking manifeftatipn of his glory through them. — Iii their ftate of grace, according to the meafurc and exercife thereof, each carries out a light and favour of Chrift to the obfervation of others ; as the face of Mofei mined, by a derivation from the divine glory, when he came down from the mount. But all this was only a faint dawning of that glorious manifefla- tion which will be made of Chrift in each of the re- deemed ; when he fhall be for ever glorified and ad- mired, not only as in himfelf, but likewife in them, — who will then have the name of God and of the Lamb, manifefted with eternal glory in their foreheads *. § III. They will be for ever above, in a ftate of glorious communion with Chr'ift. — They have times of fweet communjon with him, in their ftate of grace ; though in various degrees, and with various inter- ruptions. For he manifefts himfelf to them, as not unto the world : He fometimes privileges them with a moft comfortable fenfe of his gracious prefence and fpecial love; he fometimes fpeaks words of grace and promife into their hearts, with inexpreflible fweetnefs, — enabling them them to pour out their hearts before him ; he fometimes fills them with all joy and peace in believing. Yet all this is but an earnefl or fcretafle of their communion with him in glory; to be enjoyed equal- ly by them all, and without any interruption ior e- ver. They fhall then fee him as he is 1 And then fhall be the full accomplifhment of what he had pro- miied ; / will Jhew you plainly of the Father. Their immediate fight of the glorified God man, and of the Three-One-God in him, — with their capacity for bearing that fight, without being any way confound- ed by it ; all this we are now to believe, but can- not comprehend. There * Rev. xxii. 3, 4. 286 A View of the There will be an eternity of communication be- tween Chrift and them. — They will have an incon- ceivable bleifednefs of entertainment from him; fet forth under this figurative promife, ye /hall eat and drink at my table in my kingdom : So the Lamb which is in the midjl of the throne Jhall feed thc?n, and Jhall lead them unto living fountains of waters. ; and God Jhall wipe away all tears from their eyes *. He will be for ever filling and fatiating them with infinite good, even an influx of his own fulnefs; with mani-? feftations of his own glory, and fheddings abroad of his love through their whole fouls.— And they will be for ever pouring out their whole fouls in love to him as their all in all: With rapturous finging'of him as theirs ; and of them as not their own, but brought into a date of eternal life by the price of his life for them, — -redeemed unto God by his blood. There will be many bodily mouths in heaven ; Je- fus, and each of the redeemed, will have fuch a mouth for ever : And we are not to fuppofe, that any of thefe mouths will be fhut or unufed ; while they will be of ufe only for fpeaking, in a language we cannot now conceive of. And we may well fup- pofe, that the fweeteft intercourfes of language will, take place between him and them. There will be no ufe or occafion in heaven, for chat bleffed book called the Bible : While the perfec- tion of the heavenly itate will admit of no forgetful- fiefs* — as to any gracious things which holy men of God had once fpoken, moved by the Holy GhofL And all the Bible-myfteries about the Covenant of Grace, will then be fully opened up ; unto a being- far otherwife underftood than now: As an everlaft- irig fubjeel of language, between Chrift and the re- deemed. — He entertained his difciples with a long and mod affectionate di'courfe, the fame night in which * Luke xxii. «0. ; Rev. vii. I ~. Covenant of Grace. 287 "which he was betrayed ; on which occafion he faid to them, — I have yet many things to fay unto you, but ye cannot bear them now * : And thefe many things he faid to them afterwards, during- their Apoftolic miniftry, when made able to bear the fame. But a far higher capacity for bearing all that Chrift will be for ever faying in a far higher ftrain, will take place with all the redeemed in heaven : And they will be for ever bleifed with a hearing of bis voice ; faying over all thefe things to them, after fuch a manner as none of them could have borne in their mortal ftate. And we may well fuppofe, that there will be the fweeteft returns of language on their part : That he aud they will have an unceafing interchange of glo- rious fpeaking; conformable to what had pafled be- tween him and them in their (late of grace, — None of them will have to fay, as once, five me; being then fully faved in the Lord with an everlafting fal- vation : But each of them will have to fay, when looking up to him upon the throne, / am thine. And each will have the mod ravifhing return from him; I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name, thou art mine. § IV. They will be for ever above, in a ftate of glorious communion with one another. — They are brought into a Hate of gracious union and commu- nion on earth; they are gathered together in one, united to Chrift as their Covenant-head and Huf- band, — into one fold, as his fheep; into one Church; into one myftical body : So that they, being many, are one body in Chrifi ; and every one members one of another \. From this union, befide their public communion in the Church-ftate, they have a private communion or fellowfhip of religious intercourfe, — vet now very limited ; confined to particular and fmall * John xvi. 12. f Rom, xii. '. «8S A View of the fmall circles, according to their providential connec- tion and acquaintance : In which fellowship they have fweet conferences about Ghrift and foul-con^ cerns ; with joint addreffes to him in prayer. But their fpiritual communion will he gloriouily extended and advanced in heaven. There, they will enjoy a full effect of ChriuVs interceffion con- cerning them 5 as exprelfed in words which bear a much higher meaning than we can now understand : That they all may bs one in Us 9 as thou Father art in me and I in thee ; that they alfo may be one in us *. And the communion refulting from fuch a union, as well as the other glories of the heavenly (late which have been fpoken of, — can be bur very imper- fectly underftood by any, during their earthly (late ; when, at bed, as to thefe matters, —one can but fpeak as a child, and understand as a child, and think as a child: Yet fuch accounts of them are to be gathered, or reafonably inferred from the holy Scriptures, as may fuffice for fome endearing prof- pect thereof,— till that which is perfeel is come-f. From * John xvii. 21. f I Cor. xiii. 10, II. f The Scriptures teftify, — 'that God will bring every work in- to judgment, with every fecret thing ; whether it be good, or whe* thsr it be evil : And that every idle word that men /ball fpeak, they /hill %ive account thereof in the day of judgment : And that then God shall judge the fecrets of men, and bring upon them the fruit of their thoughts : And that we mufi all appear before the judg- ment-feat of Chrifl ; that every one may receive the things done in his boh, according to tbit he hath dyne, whether it be good or bad. And it is effential to the character of the jud Judge, — that he will bzjufttfiei when befpeaketh, clear when he judgeth ; jultified and cleared, as to the truth and equity of his judgment, in the conviction of thofe judged: That their mouths will be (lopped, without any exenfe ; felfcondemned, by the teftimony of their own confeiences, — as to every, even the minuteft particulars, of thofe mittcrs for which they will bs condemned by him. The books will then be opened; and it is not queltioaed, that of ttiefe the Covenant of Grace. 289 From the perfe&ion of their flate, and the inti- macy of their union, — we may well fuppofe, that there wiil be no unacquaintance among the indivi- duals of the redeemed in heaven : That the particu- larities of their acquaintance on earth, inflead of be- ing extinguifhed, will be improved ; but that it will likewife extend, without any confinement, through the nations of them which are faved, — though in a manner far above our prefent apprehenfions. The firfl man, from the perfection of his origi- nal knowledge, immediately difcerned the formation and character of the lird woman; though he had been in a deep fleep, when (he was formed out of him. Mofes and EIias 9 on the mount of transfigu- ration, carried out a direft evidence of who they were, — even to the eyes of mortal difciples; who ap- peared not to have aiked, as not needing to alk, a- ny information upon that fubjeet And much more, we may fuppofe, all the faved people who fhall meet in heaven will have a direct and fatisfying knowledge of one another,* — even of thofe whole exutence they never knew till meeting there; without one needing to enquire concerning another, who he is. What a glorious acquaintance and intimacy mud thus take M m place, the book of chnfciencc is one. It is peculiar to hi* judgment, — that he condemns none, without a witnefs in themfelves to thofe things for which he condemns them : None will be capable of pretending innocence or ignorance, as to any of the thoughts or words or deeds for which they will be condemned. All this mull infer a moll wonderful, and to us (now) an in- credible-like power of memories and confeiences in the day of judgment; with regard to every thing which had parted within men, and had been faid and done by them, as to botli matter and manner, — from their fir ft exercife of reafon, to their death ! May not then all the particularities of knowledge, recollections and intercourfes, now afcribed to the faints in heaven, — He rea- fonably inferred from their perfefthn ; an J from their Qnefcjs a- niong themfelves, as ail one in Chrift, ? 290 -A View of the pi ace, among all thofc who will then be mod perfect- ]y one in Chrift * ! And there will be for ever a fweet, a rapturous communication of language among them. The glo- rified Jefus, the Lamb in the midit of the throne, — » will be the peculiar and evcrlafting fubjeft of their difcourfe : While each of them, looking up to him, will have to fing, in a far higher flrain than ever they could do on earth ; My beloved is mine, and I am his! Nothing will be forgotten among them, of ail the words of grace and promife which had been giv- en to them on earth ; particularly, fuch as had been i'avingly bleiTed to them in their feveral experiences. David had faid to the Lord, and had faid it as an example of his fellow-faints, — — / will not forget thy word ; I will remember the works of the Lord; Surely I will remember thy wonders of old ; And all that vowed remembrance of his word, his works, his wonders, — mull certainly be brought to perfec- tion in heaven, without any forgetfuhiefs thereof for ever! Mod * In our prefent ftatc, we can |udge nothing about the nature of that knowledge which will take place in heaven. With regard to God, — the redeemed vr'illjee face to face t and know even ar a\fo they are known \ an attainment of which we can now form no particular conception. With regard to one another, for any- thing that we cau judge, each may fomeway have a direct or in- tuitive apprehenfion of others, as to who and whence they are; with all their concerns of their introduction into the ftate cf grace, — and of the Lord's manifold ways of carrying them forward in it, through the wildernefs of this world, till their arrival in the heavenly Canaan. This implies noabfurdity, nor any inconfift- ency with Scripture, but may rather be inferred from its ac- count of the perfection in heaven. And it is no farther above our comprehenfion, than what the Scripture teftifies about their knowledge of God : For, when fo wonderfully manifefh'ng him- felf, — he can mott cafily and immediately lay all thefe things o- pen to them, as parts of his own works and ways ; for their be- ing in a perfect capacity to praife him about one another, as well zs fcvcrally about themfelves. Covenant of Grace. 291 Mofl: raviihing- and inexhauftible themes of dif- courfe, they will thus have in heaven; about all God's gracious words and works and wonders, — now fet forth in the Bible: About the glorious per- fons in the eternal Godhead; about ail the councils of the divine will and wifdom from eternity, as ail laid open in a glorious completion of the whole ; a- bout the wonderful perfon ©f phrift, and all his ial- vation; about the Covenant of Grace, — in its efta- blifhrnenr, accompliuSment, and effect; about all the ways and wonders of God's providence, then fully unravelled; — efpecially about all his works of grace in the Church; and his gracious dealings with each of them, in their generations! Of all whicli themes they will then have a quite other comprehend iion, than they ever had in their fiate of grace. § V. They will be for ever above, in a (late of glorious employment. Some declaration hereof was made, in the view which hath been already given of the glories of their heavenly (late. — They will never have any vacancy of employment in that (late. They will then indeed reft from their labours , from all fuch toilfome work as in their earthlv ftate; from all thofe fervices and exercifes, often under much hea- vinefs, which were peculiar to their courfe of pil- grimage. Yet then they reft not day and night, an earthly way of exprciTing the mofl inceffant activity; through that inconceivable eternity, which will con- tain no fucceflion of fuch periods. But there will never be any wearinefs in that employment; they will be ever frefn in it, as it will be ever new to them. Variety and viciflitude is cffential to any hap- pinefs that we can enjoy or conceive of on earth; but this is owing to the imperfection which lies in the nature of all temporal enjoyments and exertions. When thai which is perfeel is come, in both thefe refpects ; igz A View of the refpe&s; it mud: exclude all exiftence, with all ideas, of any varieties or viciflitudes for ever. The principal and ultimate employment of the re- deemed in heaven, to which all other will be fubfer- vient and finally reduced,— will be the worlhip of e- vcrlafting praife to the Three-One-God, in and through the perfon of the glorious Mediator; they will for ever praife him in the heights of Zion. Such as this will be their evcrlafting language : — Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty ; juji and true are thy ways, thou King cf faints : Thou art worthy, Lord, to receive glory and honour and pow- er ; for thou haft created all things, and for thy plea fur e they are and were created: Blcjfng, and honour , and glo- ry and power, be unto him that fitteth upon the throne; and to the Lamb for ever and ever : Salvation, and glory, and honour and power to the Lord cur God** And the regions of heaven will refpund for ever, with the voices of the redeemed ; in molt rapturous ad- drelles to one another,- — Hallelujah, Praife ye the Lord! There was once a hcllijh rapture on earth, which perhaps never had a parallel in this world ; when a great multitude all with one voice, about the fpace of two hours, cried out, Great is Diana of the Ephefians. Strange ; that the wicked transport was maintained, that their fpirits and voices were got fo kept up, — about the fpace of two hours! — But this heavenly rap- ture will continue quite unabated for ever and ever : Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praifed, and his greatnefs is unfeatchable : — how great is thy gecdnefs, which thou haft laid up for them that feared thee; which thou haft wrought for them that trifled in thee, before the fons of men f . The redeemed will have infinite matter of praife* of * Rev. xv. 3. ; iv. I j. ; v. 13. ; xix. I . f Pfal. cxlv. 3. ; xxxi. 19. Covenant of Grace. 293 of a nature common to them all. But they will alfo hzvefpfcial matter of praife, all of them feverally ; each for himfelf. They will then be refpe&ively em- ployed in an eternal and wondering review of all the Lord's peculiar dealings with them; through all the days of their pilgrimage: Nothing will ever efcape their remembrance and obfervation, as to his provi- dential difpofals of them and concerning them on earth ; and, efpecially, as to all his gracious proce- dure with them, — in beginning, carrying on, and perfecting the good work in their fouls. Each will have to tell one another, what the Lord hath done for his foul ; but will, efpecially, be telling it all o- ver to God, in holy rapture, — to the praife of the glo? r'y of his grace. — Some will alfo have to praife him, for the ufe which he had been pleafed to make of their miniftry in the Church ; while others will have their benefits by that miniftry for the matter of their praife* . And with regard to the manifold matters of their contemplation, or of their communications with one another, both common and fpecial— their views will not terminate on any of thefe things. They will be taking up the manifestations of the divine glory therein ; the enlivening and healing rays of the Sim of Right eoufnefsy as haying palled forth upon them and through them, in all his ways of grace toward them : And fo they will be tracing ail up, in thank- ful praife, to the glorious centre of all their light and life ; afcribing all to him as ever in, their eye, upon his throne high and lifted up. None of them will glory in themfelves, in their own under/can ding and knowledge ; in any of their attainments, experiences or exercifes. They will then be in a ftate of perfect compliance with the call; lie thai glorielh, let him glory in the Lord: Or, as it * Hill. it. 16, 1,7. ; 1 Theft*, ii. 19, 20- ^94 A View of the it is in another pafiage, which ought to be rendered ; — Let him that glorieth glory in this {under/landing and knowing ?ne), that I am the Lord ; which exer-, cife loving kindnefs, judgment and right eoufnefi in the earth, (continuing that exercife in heaven according to the (late thereof); for m thefe things / delight , faith the Lord *. — So it will be, when the ranfomed of ihe Lord Jhall (in the higheit fenfe) return and come to Zion with fongs^ and everlajiing joy upon their heads : They Jhall obtain joy and gladnefs % and farrow and Jighing Jhall fee away j. CONCLUSION. Some exhibition hath been now efTayed, of that wonderful Covenant of Grace which Ji.hovah made with his Chosen ; in the eflablijhmeni of it from eternity, the acco?npliJljment of it in time, and the effeel of it through eternity. It is the chief of all his ways ; of his eternal councils, and temporal difpenfations : To have a full effe& in heaven for ever ; as the fure foundation of eternal life and glo- ry and gloriation, among the nations of them which are faved, — the great fubjecl of their eternal admi- ration and praife, as filling heaven with the infinite and amiable glory of free grace. But irconceivably different and oppofite will be the everlafting effeel: of the broken Covenant ofWorks^ —upon all who die under it ; filling hell with the dreadful and fpotlefs glory of vindictive juflice. They will then be funk to an unfathomable depth of mifery, under mod woful extremities of want and torment, in regions of abfolute and endlefs night; without any hope of alteration or alleviation, — for, iver and ever and ever. At the fame time, thefe who die under the Covenant of Grace will be advanced ;t J Cor. i. 31. ; Itr. fo. 24. j Ifa, xxxv. ip. Covenant of Grace. 295 advanced to an inconceivable height of happinefs in realms of abfolute and endlefs day ; to a full enjoying of all good, in God himfelf : Without any fear of alteration or abatement in their blefi'ednefs, — for ever and ever and ever. How overwhelming, to a finite mind, is the thought of etlrnity in thefe oppofitc conditions: A perpetual and invariable (late of duration, the be- ginning of which is ever prcfent; fo that no altera- tion or end of it, at any imaginable diftance, ever approaches ! How confounding is the thought of fuch duration, in extremity of woe ; but how ravifh- ing in extremity of happinefs ! Infinitely then doth it concern all, to be taking hold of God's Covenant of Grace by faith, while now they have an opportunity for doing fo ; as the only way of flying from the wrath to come : The only way of departing from hell beneath ; and of being exalt- ed, upon the infallible ground of the Redeemer's righteoufnefs, to a ftate of ever lading happinefs and glory in heaven. SACRED SACRED CONTEMPLATIONS: PART THIRD. A VIEW OF THE ABSOLUTE and IMMEDIATE DEPENDENCE of all Things on GOD: in a Discourse concerning LIBERTY and NECESSITY. For of him, and through him, and to him, are all thing! ; to ivhom be glory for ever. Amen* Rom. xi. 36. q»i perpetua mundum raiione gubernas f T erratum ccelique fator! qui tempus ah aevo Ire jubes ; flabilifque inane ns das cunfla mover i! $>hiem non externa pspulerunt finger e cauft, Materia fiuifantis opus ! Bo eti us. [In English.] O thou who rul'ft, with wife and pow'rful fway, r l he worlds of earth and heaven, night and day, Thine handyworks ! Who, ever fincc be^un, Still callelt time his daily courfe to run ! Who, (till immoveable, dofl: all things move; Both on the earth, and in the heav'ns above • Whom no external caufes did impel, The mighty work to make and manage well, Of fluctuating matter ! Na L *Q9 ] a***************************** ADVERTISEMENT. The late Lord Kames * publifhed a book, about thirty-five years ago, — called, FJfays on the Principles of Mcrality and Natural Religion; containing an EJfay on Liberty and NeceJ/ity. In 1763, the Affociate Synod inflicted a cenfure upon one of their preachers; for his obftinate adherence to the doctrine of that eflay : " a doctrine of fuch necejfity^ as necef- " faiily excludes the confideration of man's " fall and original fin; and contradicts the " fovereignty of Gcd's will, in his eternal de- crees, and, univerfal providence." The preacher foon publifhed a falfe and a- bujive libel againft the Synod, on that account: And the prefent author, a few weeks after- ward, publifhed an Expofition of this libel. The following Difcourfe is extracted from that Expofition; omitting many things which arofe from the particular occafion of writing and publishing it: And the extract is caft in- to a quite new form, with improvements. It refers to the fecond edition of the Effiays^ parti- cularly of that on Liberty and NtceJJity And it is thought fit for being fubjoincd to the preced; * A Lord of Sefion ; as alf© of JpfiicUr) , ■ 1 [ 30Q ] preceding Contemplations, in defence thereof, As, according to the principles of that horrid Eflay, ail doctrines about the Covenants of Works and Grace are mere fictions. A few years ago, fome time before that au- thor's death, — he pubhihed a third edition of his Eflays, with his name prefixed; in which the one now referred to has undergone fome variations, though none material as to the fubftance of his fcheme. And it cannot be unreafonable that a new exhibition be made of the prefent antidote, againft that renewed attempt to banifh Chriftianity cut of this country. A DISC OUR o r LIBERTY and NECESSI'i CHAPTER I. Of the Infidel- Scheme cf Liberty and Nicejfity. SEC T. I. 'The Infidel-Scheme of Liberty and NeceJJity explained, § I. A Summary of that Scheme in the . ji\, f erred to, as drawn up by the J himfeli", is in the following terms, viz. " Thus far have we advanced in our a: u that all human a&ions proceed in a fixed and M ceflary train. Man being what he is, a creature " endued with a certain degree oi' underfland " certain paflions and principles, and 'placed in cer- 16 tain circumflances : it is impoffible that he fliould k ' will or chufe, otherwife than in faft he wills aj d *'*■ chuies. His mind is paflive in receiving itn M fions of things as good or ill: According to thefe imp CI c; 7o± A Discourse of " impreffions, the laft judgment of the underftand- " ing is rieceffarily formed ; which the will, if con- fidered as different from the laft judgment of the understanding, neceiTarily obeys, as is fully fhown: And the external action is neceiTarily connected with " the will, or the mind's final determination to act." " In the courfe of this rea toning, we have ab- ci ftracted from all controverfies about divine pre- " fcience and decree ; though in fact, from what " hath been proved, it appears that the divine Being " decrees all future events. For he who gave fuch a nature to his creatures, and placed them in fuch circumftances, as that a certain train of actions behoved neceiTarily to fellow: He, I fay, w T ho did this, and who muft have foreieen the confequences, did certainly refolve or decree that events mould fall out, and men mould act, as they do. Pre- icience indeed is not, properly fpeaking, any caufe of events. For events do not happen, beeaufe they are forefeen ; but beeaufe they are certainly to happen, therefore they are capable of being oieleen. Though preference doth not caufe, vet it undoubtedly fuppofes. the certain futurition (as ti fchoolmen fpeak) of events. And were there not " caufes which render the existence of future events c * certain, it would involve a contradiction, to main-* "' tain that future events could be certainly forefeen. " But I avoid carrying the reader any further into ?* fuch thorny difputes." 41 The fum of what we have difcovered, concern- " ing the impreflion we have of contingency in e- nts and liberty in actions, is this. Comparing " together the moral and material world, every ling is as much the remit of eitablifhed laws in " the one as in the other. There is nothing in the t; whole univerfe that can properly be called contin- ent, that mav be, or may not be; nothing loofe M and cc cc cc cc cc a cc Ci. iC CC cc I < Liberty and Necessity- 30J and fluctuating in any part of nature: But every motion in the materia!, and every determination and action in the moral world, are directed by immutable laws; fo that, whil f_ thefe laws remain in force, not the final left link of the univcriai chain of caufes and effects can be broken, nor a- ny thing be other wife than it is ■ ." iX The Deity is the primary caufe of all things. In his infinite mind he formed the great plan of government, which is carried on by laws fixed and immutable. Thefe laws produce a regular train of caufes and effects, in the moral as well as material world ; bringing about thofe events which are comprehended in the original plan, and admitting the pofTibility of none other. This u- niverfe is avail machine, winded up and fet a-go- ing. The feveral fprings and wheels operate un- erringly, one upon another. The hand advan- ceth, and the clock ftrikes, precifely as the Artifl hath determined. Whoever hath juft ideas, and a true tafte of philofophy, will fee this to be the real theory of the univerfe; and that, upon any other theory, there can be no general order, no whole, no plan, no means nor end in its admini- ftration. In this plan, man, a rational creature, bears his part; and fulfils certain ends for which he was defigned. He muft be an aclor, and mud act with confeioufnefs and fpontaneity. He cxer- cifes thought and reafon, and his nature is improv- ed by the due ufe of thefe rational powers. Con- fequently, it is neceffary, that he mould have fome his de- creeing of events is made to depend en his forefeeing of them: And we are taught, that u it would in- " volve a contradiction, to maintain, that future " events could be certainly forefeen ; were there " not caufes which render the exiftence of future u events certain," fuch caufes in the nature and circumftances of things. He then forefaw what cer- tainly would happen from fuch caufes, and therefore decreed that it mould happen. — Now, what fort of a decreeing behoved this to be ? Juft as if a clock- maker mould decree concerning a good clock which he is to fet a-going, — that, againft a certain hour fome day, the hand fhall point to a certain figure, and the hammer fhall give a certain number of flrokes. Who fees not, that the maker might very well fave himfelf the trouble of fuch a vain decree- ing? For, whether he will thefe events, or will them iiot, or will the contrary, it is all one matter ; they will come of courfe, without any continued depen- dence * Weftminfler Confefioriy chap. iii. § 2. Liberty and Necessity. 313 dence on his will or pleafure, — juft as the feveral- fprings and wheels work unerringly one upon ano- ther. § III. According to this fcheme, There is no room for any fovcrei^nty of God's will in his univerfal pro- vidence. — " God, the great Creator of all things, " doth uphold, direel:, difpofe, and govern all " creatures, actions and things, from the greateft " even to the leaft, by his molt wife and holy pro- " vidence ; according to his infallible foreknow- " ledge, and the free and immatable council of his " will; to the praife of the glory of his wifdom, power, juft ice, goodnefs and mercy :" And although, in relation to the foreknowledge and decree of God 3 the firft caufe, all things come to pafs immutably and infallibly ; yet, by the fame providence, he ordereth them to fall out accor- ding to the nature of fecond caufes ; either necef- farily, freely, or contingently :" And" God, in his ordinary providence, maketh ufe of means; " yet is free to work without, above, and againft " them, at his pleafure *." Such is the abfolute fovereigaty of God's will in his providence, that all yt depend immediately on his pleafure, through means or fecond caufes where he fees meet to ufe them; not on the pleafure, or nature, or virtue of thefe means or fecond caufes: While it holds of his providence, as of his decrees, — that thereby there " is no violence offered to the will of the creatures ; tc nor is the liberty or contingency of fecond caufes " taken away, but rather eftabiilhed \." But the new fcheme teaches us, that " there is " nothing in the whole univerfe, that can properly " be called contingent, that may be or may not be ; P p — Nothing * Weftminjier Co*fe]p9n % caap. v. § i, 2, 3. -{- II id. chap. iii. § I. cc cc cc CC ii CC cc Ci 314 si Discourse of " — Nothing that can be called contingent,— but; M every thing miift be precifely what it is, and be " found in that (late in which we find it:" So that the laws of nature are 'aid to " produce a regular " train of caufes and effects, in the moral as well " as materia! world; bringing about thofe events CJ which are comprehended in the original plan, " and admitting the poffibility of none other V What * The Calvi'iijl writers upon providence do univerfally main- tain the doflrine of futwe evili agents ; that is, of things which may be or may not be. Not as if they reckoned that any things are fo, with refpect to God ; but that many things are fo, with refpect to us : And likevvife that many things are fo with refpect to fecond caufes, even confidently with the nature and ordinary courfe of thefe caufes, abdracting from miraculous interpofals ; •utt as God fees meet to order the various conjunctures and ope- rations of thefe caufes, one way or other. And it can be no way (ho-king to human under(landin«, but every way agreeable to fober rcafon, yea an effential dictate of it, —that all things, the lead as well as the greated, are under the continual attention and difpofal of the infinite Being: Whofe un- demanding, wifdom, and power, are infinite; who can attend to all things, a3 If they were but one thing; and who has wife ends to be ferved, though far out of our view, by the minuted things, and the minuted circum dances of thefe tilings. But what underdanding, upon a near view, can diged the pre- fent doctrine of imiverfal necefiity? We mud believe, for indance, of every circuradance that can be obferved about a hair, a fea- ther, a draw, a grain of dull, or all the motes which we fee dancing in a fun-beam, — that every fuch thing is a fpring of the vad machine, or belongs to the unerring operation of its fprings and wheels one upon another ; every circumttance of fuch things proceeding from a train of caufes and effects, through a chain of many millions of links, each linked fad into another, back to the morning of the creation: So as the hws of nature could not admit the poffibility of any one of thefe things, or of any one circumdance of them, being otherwife than they are; but the the fmalleft variation would have been an " altering the whole " conltttution of things, or fufpending the regular operation of *' the laws of nature !" A man (its down to a book, which he had left open upon hit; table j Liberty and NECESSITY. 315 What is it, then, that the fovereign will of God in his providence can have ado about iuch a world \ Really, nothing at all. — We are not merely taught that nothing is juturc, but evei that nothing is pof- fible, except what actually comes 10 pafs; as if God's omnipotence could extend to nothing beyond, or different from the ftate of this world: £0 that the fuppofition of " altering the whole coniHtution of " things," or even of fufpending the regular ope- ration of the laws of nature, — is but the luppofni n of an impoffibility . As to all thofe things which actually come to pafs, we are taught an impoffibUity of their bein? other wile than they are, — that in the fjjiem of the world, for what Chriftians believe, — as to the integrity of man's primitive ejiate, his fall from it y and the fate of fin which is thence become ori- ginal to all his poferity. — Were there any room here for fuch things, they could only be upon the fame level with all other things in the world ; juft fome of the neceffary and unerring operations of the iprings and wheels of the vaft machine,— things produced of courfe, by the laws of nature. But indeed there is no room here for fuch things at all ; becaufe, according to the new fcheme, man's prefent ft ate is his primitive flare: Without having undergone any change, — except fo far as, in exer- cifing thought and reafon, " his nature is improved " by the due ufe of thefe rational powers." For, with Liberty and Necessity. 317 with refpecl to the prcfcnt nature and circumftance of all creatures, and fo of man abflong the reft, (" man being what he is, a creature endued with " a certain degree of undei (landing, certain paffi* us " and principles, and placed in certain circumftan* u ces ;") we are taught, that God " gave fuch a na- " ture to his creatures, and placed them in fuel] cir- " cumftances, as that a certain train of actions" (juft what now takes place) " behoved neceilarily " to follow." Accordingly, it is (aid, with refpect to the great flan of government which God formed in the origi- nal conftitution of the vaft machine; that c< in this " plan, man, a rational creature, bears his part, " and fulfils certain ends for which he was defign- " ed :" So that he mult be underftocd to be 11111 as at firft, in reipeel; of fulfilling the ends for which he was defigned ; ft ill bearing his part, — as " a part " of that great machine, winded up and fet a-going <- c by the Author of his nature." The EJfayer teaches to the fame purpofe, in ano- ther of his Ej/ays ; where he tries to account for God's having given a place, in the original frame of the vait machine, to fuch an imperfect creature as man, — or to prove that this is no argument againft the pure benevolence of the Deity. With regard to all natural evils, which others lock upon as the punifliments of fin, afcribing them to its guilt and God's vindictive juftice; he fays, " we cannot ra- " tionally afcribe them, — but to the pre eftablifhed " order and conftitution of things, and to the necef- " fary imperfection of all created beings :" And he adds, " "Why fhould we hcfitate a moment, to af- " cribepure benevolence to the Deity ; and to con- " elude thefe evils to be neceflary defects in a good " conftitution * r" With * P. 294. 318 A Discourse of With regard to all moral evils, or matters of fin, — he admits (while arguing that it is no relevant ob- jection againd the benevolence of the Deity), that God " hath given man a conditutionby which mo- " ral evil doth and mud abound ;" and according- ly teaches, that " all things in the moral as well as " material world proceed according to fettled laws " edablifhed by providence :" And his way of ac- counting for all this, is as follows, viz. " We have " a jud ground of convi&ion, that all matters are " by providence ordered in the befl manner j and " therefore that even human vices and frailties are " made to anfwer wife and benevolent purpofes : " Ever) thing poffeffes its proper place in the divine " plan: Ail our actions contribute equally to carry power, intelli- gence, and pure benevolence : An ailegement not ob- fcure, that no fuch attribute as vindiclive j'^jlice can belong to the Deity. idly, We are taught, " that ail human actions M proceed in a fixed and neceflary train ;" that God hath fo endued and placed man, that " it is impof- " fible that he mould will or chufe otherwife than in " fact he wills and chufes;" that 4t comparing to- " gether the moral and material world, every thing M is as much the refult of eitabliihed laws in the " one as in the other :" That as " every motion in " the material," io " every determination and ac- " tion in the moral world are directed by immuta- " ble laws; fo that, whillt thefe law; remain in Q^q " force, 3** A DiseouRSB of j? force, not the fmalleft link of the univerfal chain " of caufes and effects can be broken, nor any " thing be otherwife than it is;" and " that it is " a regular train of caufes and effe&s in the moral tc as well as material world, " which " thefe laws " produce, — bringing about thofe events which are €i comprehended in the original plan, and admitting " the poflibility of none other." All this is taught, and more to the fame purpofe. Now, can any mind reconcile thefe things with the idea of man's accountablenefs to God, as an ob- ject of b J amej of his being accountable for any thing, to God as an offended and righteous Judge ? Can God feek, or find fault with the want of origi~ nal impoffibilities? Can God be offended at the efta- blifhed Iknt dtfti 342 A Discourse of and writings were too extenfive, for his having lei- fure to weigh every point : And we may well fup- pofe, from his character, that, if he had weighed the matter, he would not have adhered to the un- worthy fentiment, — which was fuggefted to him by fomc fupcrficial glare, in the comparison of God's world with an engine or machine of human work- manmip. That fuch a machine, when once fet up, fhould go, — without the maker, or any deputed by him, having (till a hand at it ; this does not fo much argue the perfection of the machine, as the imper- fection of the maker: While the materials of it have many properties in no dependence on him ; and the momentary countinuance of that form in which he fets it up, has as little dependence on him. Befides, it confifts not with the nature of fuch a machine, or of its maker, — that he mould Itill be in it, and in every part of it. But all is quite otherwife with God's world : E- very thing in and about it mufl continue to have an immediate and abfolute dependence on himfelf; and it muft always be full of him. The beauty and perfection of it can nowife lie in any capacity of be- ing or doing any thing without him ; but is all de- rived from the glory of his being, and wifdom, and power,— as continually mining through the whole. There is a great variety of material caufes, pro- ducing a great variety of effects, in the fyftem of this world ; but, as to each of thefe, God is the fu- preme a*nd immediate caufe. The nature and effi^ ciency of the fupreme caufe, and of any fubordinate caufe, are fo infinitely different, — that there is no inconfiftency of each being an immediate and total caufe of the fame effect, each according to its kind. So that God is working in and through all things, agreeable to the nature and properties which he has endued Liberty and Necessity 343 endued them with ; not merely in the way of a ge- neral, but of a mod particular concourfe. § IX. This doclrinc doth not mean, to make God the foul of the univerfe. — It is indeed full of him : He is above all, an I tbrgugh a!!, and in all: Of him t and t /.rough him, and to him are all things *. But he is in the world, fo as to be infinitely differ- ent from it; no way confined to it; no way exten- ded through it ; no way fubje&ed to its influence, but it wholly iubje&ed to his : He is wholly in all, and wholly in every part, — fo as to be wholly with- out and above all; working all things, working in and through all his creatures, after the council of his own %vill\* — Thefe are things which we cannot com- prehend, but mufl admire. We cannot underfland how thefe things can be: But we may understand that God cannot be, according to what the infinite One mufl be, — if thefg things be not fo. § X. What fort of necejfity, then, takes place in the material world ; as to the manifold events or ef- fects which it abounds with? — We may readily judge of this from what has been faid ; that no proper ne- eeffity can lie in the nature of things, abftractly con- fidered. All things of the world, with all the na- ture of thefe things, mufl be reckoned nothing at all, — but jufi as God every moment pleafes that they mould be; none of thefe things having any felf- fufficiency for themfelves, or for any thing elfe No fort of neceflity can, therefore, lie here, — ex. cept what is more properly called certainty ; the cer- tainty of all things being what they are, and as they are, while they are fo. The only neceflity which can be afcribed to the material world, is the necefli- ty of its being all in a itate of immediate and abfo- lute * Eph. iv. 6, ; Rom. xi. 36. f Eph. i. 11. 344 JL Discourse of Jute dependence on God; fo as all things in it mult be abfolutelv fubfervient to his pleafure* through an exertion of his own power in and by them. Thisj we own, is a very high necefiity: The necefiity that God mould be God over all ; and that creatures mould be but creatures ; and that all his purpofes mould be fulfilled by them, through his own difpo- fa I of them. But all this necefiity, as refpecting creatures, is neither folely nor any way founded in the nature of things; it is wholly founded in the fo- vereign will and power of God. Art. II. Of Contingency or Chance in the material World. § I. Nothing is contingent, may be or may not be, with refpect to God. He forefees whatever comes to pafs, in all the circumftances of every thing $ fo that nothing can be to him unexpected, or una- wares. The reafon of this is, that he has decreed whatever comes to pafs, in all the circumftances of every thing; and there is an infallible necefiity, that all his decrees be accomplifhed : An infallible necef- fity of every event ; as to its falling out according to his unchangeable will, through his own adminiitra- tion. § II. Many things are contingent, may be or may hot be with refpecl to us. Many events or effects have no connection with, or are in no fubjection to our will or power; fo as we mould have to act the. part of fecond caufes in bringing them about: But, befides this, there are many events or effects which we cannot in the lead forfee; God bringing them a- bout in fuch a fecret and myfterious way, that we can perceive nothing of the gradual advance which mat- ters arc making toward fuch an iffue. Theie things do Liberty and Necessity. 345 do therefore fall out contingently, unexpectedly, and mrprizingly, — with refpect to us. It holds of men, in this fenfe, that time and chance happenetb to them all*. § III. Every thing in the material world is abfo- lutely contingent, maybe, or may not be, with re- fpect to all other things in it; confidered abstractly from the continued interpofition of the divine will and power. Thus confidered, the material world bears no tolerable comparifon to an elaborate en-> gine or machine which a human artift has made and let a-going: It mould rather be compared to a com- plete let of tools, with a proper (lock of materials ; which are nothing at all to each other, however nearly they may be lying together, but as the artift is prefently employing them. Every caufe is but as a tool in God's hand ; and otherwise than as in his hand, his working hand, it can produce nothing. A chain of caufes and effects in this world as in a going machinery, abflraclly from a continued inters pofition of the divine will and power, is all a ro- mance ; there is no fuch thing, there can be no fuch thing in God's world, As filings of iron will hang at a loadflone, each particle flicking to another for fome length like a firing or chain, — from its virtue pafEng through and influencing them all ; but they fall afunder into their former condition, the moment they are feparated from it : So the whole fyflem, contexture, or chain of things in this world, is continually kept together and in its courfe by the power of God ; and all things would neceffarily fall to pieces, quite afunder, en- tirely loofe, even into their original nothing,— if they were one moment feparated from the divine in- fluence, which is habitually palling through the whole. T t Such * Eccl. ix. IX* 346 A Discourse of Such is the neceffary and inconceivable dependence of all things on God, in their being and all their o- perations *. § IV. What is it that we call a caufe and an ef- fcft ? Juft: two things which we fee always, or at lead ufually going together, — fo as the one accom- panies or follows upon the other ; and in fuch a manner, that we readily expect the one to be with or from the other, — -reckoning in many cafes, that they could not be fcpaiated without a miracle. But how is the actual connection made up between thefe two ; or how comes the one to influence, and the other to be influenced? Any man would but bewray his own folly, in pretending to account for all this; otherwife than by a ftated interpofition of the divine power or efficacious pleafure, fuch as is altogether above our comprehcnfion. It is thus only that the matter * " The existence of created fubftances, in each fucceflive " moment, mud be the effect of the immediate agency, will and ' i power of God. If any (hall fay, — that there is no need of a- " ny immediate divine power, to produce the prefent exiftence " of created fubftances; but that their prefent exiltence is the " elfccl or confequence of pad exiftence, according to the na- i( ture of things; and that the eftablifhed cour/e of nature Is " fufficient to continue exiftence, where exiftence is once given ; f< — I allow it : But then it fhould be remembered what nature lt is in created things, and what the eftablifhed cour/e of nature " is ; that — it is nothings feparate from the agency of God ; — • " nothing, but the eftablifhed order of the agency and opera- " tion of the Author of nature. , '— 46 God's preferving created things in being, is perfectly equi- " valent to a continued creation ; or to his creating thofe things •' out of nothing, at each moment of their exiftence. If the " continued exiftence of created things be wholly dependent on " God's prefcrvation ; then thofc things would drop into 110- " thing upon the ceafing of the prefent moment, without a new " exertion of the divine power to caufe them to exift in the fol- " lowing moment. " Edwards on Original Sin; Part IV* Chap. II. III. Liberty and Necessity. 34J matter can be refolved : As we are to sreount for the actual connection between a tool and materials, —or the influence of the tool upon the materials, and the prefent fubjeclion of the materials to that influence; we are to account for all this, from the fkilful pleafure and power of the artiftj in his pre- fent employing of the tool. Among all that men call laws of nature, there is none more univerfal and invariable than gravitation^ or the tendency of all material things to fome cen- tre; particularly, the tendency of matter about this earth to fall downward. But what is the caufe of all this ? The wifeft philofophers find themfclves o- bliged to refolve it wholly and immediately into a habitual interpofal of the divine will, a habitual im- preffion of the divine power *. And though, in many other cafes, we can difcern fome fecondary caufe of an effed ; yet the fecondary caufe mud not be looked upon as fupptying God's place : He mull be no lefs the worker here, than where we can dif- cern no fecondary caufe at all ; while every fuch caufe is nothing at all, in point of felf-fufficiency. § V. The glorious Creator and Upholder of all things has fettled an ordinary interpofition of his will and power, as to the courfe of events in this world, or as to the wonderful train of caufes and ef- fects; according as his own counfel is to be thereby fulfilled. Yet he mod eafily can invert, and often has inverted this natural courfe of things, in his mi- raculous difpenfations. But befides, there are many things which may be or * " The mutual gravitation of bodies cannot be explained any u other way, than by refolving it into the immediate operation * f of God ; who never ceafes to difpofe and actuate his creatures, " in a manner fuitable to their refpedtive beings." Gnat No. 126. 348 A Discourse of or may not be, without any miraculous inverting of the natural courfe; juft as God pleafes to interpofe, one way or other. Thus, in a full confiftency with the natural or fettled courfe of things, and juft as God pleafes, — there may be or may not be a ftormy wind, a deftruclive lightning and thunder, a deluge of rain, a feafon pernicioufly wet or dry, an inun- dation, an earthquake, a deftroying peftilence ; as, on the other hand, many lingular favours of provi~ dence. All this we muif. allow, if we will properly allow that God is, that the world is his, and that he is in it -, with a full latitude for frowning or fmiling upon men in his providence, for difpenfing bleflings or judgments. Upon the whole, we may fafely conclude,— that there is no neceffity in the material world, but fuch as leaves all things in it abfolutely contingent with refpect to each other, in themfelves considered; no neceffity in the abftract nature of things: No neceili- ty but what turns all upon this glorious point, — the fovereign and continually efficacious will of God. " God, by the bridle of his providence, turns what- " ever events on whatever fide he pleafes : It is to " be undoubtedly held, that all the turns which are " to be obferved in the world — do proceed from the " fecret motion of God's hand : In the mean time, " what God hath appointed is thus neceffary to take " place; yet fo, as it is neither abfolutely, nor in its Ci own nature neceffary *. * Calvin's Injlilutions ; Book I. Chap, xvi. § 9. SECT. Liberty and Necessity. %^g SECT. II. Of Liberty and Necejity in the moral World, or the World of rational Creatures. Art. I. Of the Exercife of Man's rational Powers. § I. The human ivill is not a diflindl agent ; it is only a power of the rational foul, which is the a- gent : And it is infeparably connected with another great power, the underflanding. When we fay, that the underflanding or will ads, — it is the fame as to fay, the foul ads in underflanding and willing: It is the foul that underflands, and the foul that wills. Nor can thefe different powers be feparatcd from each other in their a&ings, more than any of them can be feparated from the foul: Whenever the foul un- derflands any thing, it has fome will about the thing; and whenever the foul wills any thing, it has fome underflanding of the thing, § II. It is effential to a foul, to have a moral difpo- fition ; good or bad, or fome mixture of both. The new-fafhioned morality, about what ought and ought not to be, — which is originally founded in felf-love, or in focial affections, or in a principle of fympathy, or in a fenfe of beauty and harmony, or in fome feeling called the moral fenfe, or in the na- ture of things, or in the good of the whole ; all this is an imaginary morality, which Chriflians lhould have no bufinefs with. By the moral difpofition of the foul, we mean the difpofition which it has with reipeel: to God as the fupreme Lawgiver. A foul is not an independent being; unconcerned with all others, further than as it pleafes to deal with them by underflanding and 350 A Discourse of willing : But it is neceffarily, in its confcious nature, fubjected to various relations ; the chief of which is, its relation to God in the above character. This is -what no foul can be without fome impreflion of: So as every foul mud have fome engrained difpofition, lefpecting God as the fupreme Lawgiver ; like the engrained difpofition which foine things of the ma- terial world have, to cleave unto or fly off from o- ther things. It is utterly inconARent with the na- ture of a foul, as a rational and confcious creature, to have any indiflerency of difpofition in this cafe; a bias, one way or other, it mull have. § III. The moral difpofition of man's foul, at his original, was the image of God upon him ; in righ- teoufnefs and holinefs : Righteoufnefs and holinefs in the difpofition of his nature ; a difpofition for cleav- ing to God in the way of obedience, — and, at the fame time, for embracing him as the chief good. But a woful change was foon affected, in that manner which the fcripture reprefents # : And the moral difpofition of man's foul now, is juft the re- verfe of what it was originally; a difpofition for fly- ing off from God in the way of rebellion, — -and, at the fame time, for rejecting him as the chief good. This is fuch a change in the nature of fouls, as if the bodies about this earth had been of an original tendency for flying upward to the fun; but had af- terwards degenerated into their prefent tendency, for falling downward to the earth. Whatever bias remains in man's heart toward any thing that is meet or morally good, in the concerns of human fo- ciety ; yet, with refpect to God, there is an univer- sal depravity or corruption of human nature : So that the foul has naturally an engrained averfion from and enmity againft God; with a fort of gra- vitation Part I. Chap. V. Liberty and Necessity. 351 vitation toward fenfible and finite good, as its cen- tre *. The grace of God effectuates a remedy of this v» r oful caufe, in the experience of fome. There is a begun reiteration of their fouls now, to be comple- ted in the future flare: And, in the fouls of fuch, there is a mixture of the two oppofite moral difpo- fitions above-mentioned; fometimes the one prevail- ing, and fometimes the other. §IV. * " When God made man at firft, he implanted in him two kinds of principles. There was an inferior kind, — being the ** principles of mere human nature ; fuch as felf-love, with thofc 41 natural appetites and paiiiens which belong to the nature of " man i in which his love to his own liberty, honour and plea- '* fure, were exercifed. — Befides thefe, there were fuperior prin- *\ ciples ; that were fpiritual, holy and divine, fummarily com- " prehended in divine love : Wherein conlifted the image of God, " and man's righteoufnefs and true holinefs. Thefe principles " — -are above thofe principles that are eflentially implied in, or M neceflarily refulting from, and infeparably connected with mere ** human nature ; — being fuch as immediately depend on man's " union and communion with God, or divine communications " and influences of God's Spirit : Which though withdrawn, and " man's nature forfaken of thefe principles ; human nature will " be human nature ftill." " When man finned,' — immediately the fuperior divine prn> " ciples wholly ceafed ; fo light ceafes in a room when the can- ** die is withdrawn: And thus man was left in a ftate of dark- " nefs, woful corruption and ruin ; — the inferior principles, which " were given only to ferve, being alone and left to themfelves, " of courfe became reigning principles. — Thus it i3 eafy to giver '*' an account, how total corruption of heart 'hould follow on " man's eating the forbidden fruit, though that was but one ad of " fin; without God's putting any evil into his heart, or implant- (t ing any bad principle, or infufing any corrupt taint; and lo " becoming the author of depravity." " As God withdrew fpiritual communion and gracious influ- " ences from the common head ; fo he with-holds the lame from '« all the members, as they come into exigence : Whereby they " come into the world, — entirely UUf'er the government ot the " natural and inferior principles, and f > become wholly corrupt " as Adam did."— -Edwards en Original Sift} Part IV. Cha|>. II. Ct $$2 A Discourse of § IV. The moral difpofiition which we have been fpeaking of, immediately refpects the will ; but it alfo concerns the under/landing. — If a man have his face turned ftraight toward the fun, in a clear day, with open eyes ; he then has a direct view of the fun, by a fulnefs of its light entering directly into his eyes: But if he afterwards turn his back on the fun, he immediately lofes all that view ; and lofes all en- joyment of the fun's light, except by reflection from other objects. So it is, in the prefent cafe; accord- ing to the lame and faint refemblance of earthly to fpiritual things. In the original moral difpofition of man's foul, his face was ftraight toward God, the fun of fouls: The glorious light of the divine per- fections did thus fhine directly into his understand- ing, impreffing upon him the image of God in know- ledge; and enabling him to behold the glory of God in direct views, as alfo in taking up the full reflect tions of it from ail the creatures. But, in the cor* rupt moral difpofition of man's foul, the cafe is all o- therwife : His back is turned upon God, he has no direct view of God, and he cannot properly take up the reflection of the divine glory from the creatures j his underftanding is filled with darknefs, ignorance, vanity, weaknefs, and error. — Yet the grace of God delivers from this power of darknefs ; enduing fome with various meafures of faving light here, in order to a fulnefs of it hereafter, § V. The moral difpofition of man's foul, as it refpects both the will and underftanding, has a go- verning influence upon the will in all its moral act- ings; in all thofe actings which refpect the fupreme Lawgiver and his law, as to matters of fin and duty. The moral difpofition lies not primarily in the un- derftanding or in the will, confidered as powers of the Liberty and Necessity. the foul; far lcfs docs it fo lie in any exercife of I powers: But it is an engrained quality of the foul it- felf, lying at the root of thefe powers in their exer- cife. And it is evident, that, according to what is the prevailing moral difpofition of the foul, accord- ingly rnuft be the moral actings of the will : Accord- ing to what fort of a heart a man has, accordingly muft be the exercife of his heart and the tenor of his behaviour, — in matters of moral good and evil. It was to this purpofe that our Lord faid, — Do men gather grapes of thorns , or figs of thijtles ? Even fo e- very good tree bringeth forth good fruity but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit : A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit ; nor can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit*. § VI. In all the actings of the human will, under whatever moral difpofition, it a£ts from fome con- fideration of motives: That is, the foul willeth as a reafonable being, having fome reafon or other for its willing fo. If a man's will can ever act. fo capri- cioufly or whimfically, as to proceed upon no reafon. at all ; in that cafe the man a£ts irrationally, and fuch acting can be. of no account in the moral world. A felf-determining power of the will, abftractly from or againft all motives or reafons, i$ a grofs abfurdi- ty : No fuch power can be confident with rationali- ty ; feeing the will is not a diftinct agent, but a power of the rational foul as fuch. § VII. No motives whatever, the ftrongeft more than the weakeft, the belt more than the word, — can have any fort or degree of influence upon the will, fo far as thefe motives are without us. Till ;i motive be in the mind or understanding, it h no- thing at all to the will ; it is to the will as if it \ U u * Mattb. vii. 1 6, 17, itf. 354 A Discourse of not at all: And the foul, in its willing, cannot pof- fibly proceed upon reafons which to it are not ; as is the cafe of reafons which it has no underftanding of. An object not in the mind, which is an object un- known, — cannot be an object of defire, or fear, or any inclination at ail in the will. All that can be faid, then, about the human will having any con- cern with motives, or about thefe motives having any concern with the human will, — as they are mo- tives placed without us ; all this is no better than a vifionary romance, quite alien from the real date of human nature. § VIII. Let us fee how the cafe ftands with mo- tives, upon their getting into the mind, or becoming the objects of the underftanding. Even then, thefe motives can have no manner of influence upon the will, nor the will have any thing ado with them, as they are in themfelves ; but only as they are in the underftanding: And no motives whatever can make a full, appearance, according to all their own nature and importance, in the underftanding of any man on this fide of time ; becaufe of the imperfection which muft cleave to his underftanding, at its beft, in the prefent life. When motives, therefore, are in the mind, they influence the will, or the will has ado with them, only as they are in the mind ; under all the di fad vantages which they have from the dark- nthy wcaknefs, and errors of the underftanding. § IX. Befide this fubjection which motives are un- der to the corrupt underftanding, they have a great deal of further difadvantage from the corruption of the will. The moral difpofition which is now natu- ral to men, puts the will upon a bias of oppofition to all moral good as fuch, — to God and all that is Cod-ward ; an oppofitiou which is too ftrong for all contrary Liberty and N£cessity. jrr Contrary motives in the underftanding, too ftrong for every thing but the fupernatural grace of God. And even in matters which are not directly of a moral kind, as to fin and duty, — but immediately concern our own intereft; the darknefs of the underftanding is accompanied with a perverfenefs and folly of the will, which often (lands out againft any contrary- force that motives get from the underflanding. The will is naturally ferving diverfc lujls and pleafurcs * ; fo as it bids defiance, in many cafes, to eonfidera- tions of both duty and intereft. Thus, as it is ordinary for men to have falfe views of things, or motives falily ftated in their minds : It is like wife ordinary for the v/ili to act in oppcfition to light or conviction in the underftanding, or to thole motives which have the chief advantage there; not merely from an influence of iorhe contrary motive*, — but more efpecially from the engrained corruption of the moral difpofLtion, which gives the prevailing advantage to thefe. § X. What is now the amount of all this ? The direct reverfe of what is taught by the Ejjayei\ a-r bout motives. He fays f , Ci If motives be not un- l< der our power or direction, which is confefleJ.lv 44 the fact ; we can, at bottom, have no liberty." But who has confevTed this to be a fact, about mo- tives ? No Calviniit, certainly, or any real Chaiili- an, ever did. If the language here have any fenfe, motives are fpoken of as they are in themfelves. To fay that motives are not under our power, confulered as they are dated in our underflanding, and as our moral difpofition is affected toward them, — would be to fpeak nonfenfe: As it would be a faying, upon the matter, that our underftanding is not in our power, that * Tim. Hi. 3. f ?• 12 5- 356 o A Discourse of tinctions which would be unintelligible, or unedify- ing to the generality of readers. Befides, there could not be proper room here for confidering the fubjecl; in all its extent. A few things only mail be propofed, for giving fome gene- ral view of the matter: And for vindicating the Ho- ly Onii, from the imputation of being the author of Jin j which can never be done, if his permitting fin be the fame thing with caufing it : If the cafe were as the Effayer would have it, — that " with regard to " the Firft Caufe, permitting is the fame thing " with causing j fince againft his will nothing can « happen*." § II. God's permiffion of fin is moji wife.*— When he was pleafed to create two worlds of reafonable beings, angels and men; their natures could not admit of any felf-fufflciency for maintaining their o- riginal perfection, more than for maintaining, their exiftence: And he faw meet that this mould be evi- dent, not only in fpeculation but alfo in fact, ; by permitting fome angels, and all men to fall f . Thus, there * P. 140. 7 The continuance of angels, as well as of the firft man, in their primitive integrity, — was necefiarily to depend, every mo- ment, upon a continual and unremitted influence of divine pow- a ; for carrying out their upright habits into extrcife, as to- e- very particular act of obedience: According to what has been formerly obferved. Part I. Chap. III. § IV. V. VI. When this divine influence was fufpended, as to the angels who fell, — it was continued upon all others of that celeilial fa- mily; which they certainly found in themfelves, and thankfully acknowledged, to have been wholly owing to the fovereign and rliltinguiihed grace of God. But it was not till the fall of fome, that the reft were put into a ftate of confirmation; bearing an r.ffurance to them,— that they (hould never be left fo to fall, through a fufpending of that influence. Thi3 confirmation ap- pears lo have taken place, immediately upon their finding them- felves Liberty and Necessity, -6i there is a ftariding and awful monument of that ; infufficicncy which is eflential to even the hi 'heft fi- nite nature: While his incommunicable felf-fufficiency is displayed in thehigheft manner, with an awful glo- ry of his ablblute fovereignty. And the ftate of (in which men have fallen into is ordered, by his mani- fold wifdom, unto the mod glorious end ; infinitely above and contrary to its natural tendency. It is made to ifTue in fo high a difpenfation of his good- nefs, and fohigh a manifeftation of his glory, through the redemption that is in Jefus ChriJI, — as could not have taken place in a world of innocent men. § III. God's permiflion of fin is mojljujl, — It was not from juftice, but from abfolute and adorable fo- vereignty, that the firil fin was permitted. Yet, u- pon man's becoming finful, it became a matter of juftice with God to permit fm; to leave men, more and more* to themfelves, as a punifhment of th ir apoftacy from him *. And it is a matter of thankful X x admiration, felves jn*ac!oufly preferved from yielding- to temptation by thofe who fell. And there appears no impropriety in fuppofing, that the cafe migh have been the fame with the firft man ; hid God been pleafed fo to preferve him under his firft temptation ; W*hen once he fhoulJ thus have found by thankful experience, as the confirmed angels had done in their cafe, — that hia (landing was wholly in and from God. Tart I. Chap. IV. § V. * " As for thefe wicked and ungodly men, whom God as a " righteous judge, for former fins, doth blind and harden: " From them he not only with-holdeth his grace, whereby they *■'. might have been enlightened in their underftandingi, and " wrought upon in their hearts; but fometimes alfo withdraw- " cth the gifts which they had, and cxpofeth them to fuch ob- * { jefts as their corruption makes occaiion of fin ; and withal, ** gives them over to their own l'ills, the temptations of the " world, and the power of Satan; whereby it comer, to pafs " that they harden themfelves, even under thofe means which " God ufeth for foftening others." IVtfminfier Chap. V. § <3. 362 A Discourse of admiration, that be has not proceeded farther in this righteous judgment; that he has not left the world of men to become utterly abandoned, abfolutely in- capable of any moral government. § IV. God's perm! (lion of fin is moft holy.— He is of purer eyes than to behold' evil, and cannot look on iniquity *, as either in the leaft agreeable or indiffer* ent to him. It is the object of his higheft deteiiation and wrath, as is abundantly teftified in the Scriptures ; teftified alio in the judicial difpenfations of his provi- dence, and in thofe dictates of his judgment which he has formed the natural confeience for pronounc- ing o § V. God's perrnhTion of fin does not imply any influence or efficiency as to the fin permitted. — When it is faid that, " with regard to the Firft Caufe, per- u mittinrt is the fame thine with cauflnz ;" if the words have any fen(e, it is an efficient or effective caufmg that muft be meant. It is only this fort of caufing that any ever oppofe'S, or could oppofe, to permitting: Aad if only 1 ptrnifiv* cau r mg were meant, the aflertion would bear this ridiculous form, —that t; with regard to the Fir(t Cw r e, permitting " is the fame thing with permitting ;" which is as much true of every caufe, it is the fame with itfelf. § VI. It is readily acknowledged, that permitting and caufing may agree in fome refpects ; as many different things will do. Tney may agree, as to the infallibility of the event which is permitted or cauf^ ed ; its being as infallible in the one cafe, as in the other. They may alio agree, in one's being charge- able with and anfwerable for what he permits, as well as what he caufes : But this can only be, where the * Hab. i. 13. Liberty and NECESSITY. ->6 j w j the permitter is under a previous obligation of duty not to permit the thing; which none will venture to fay of God, — Yet an agreement in luch refpe&s, can never make permitting and qaufing the fame thing in their nature. The permitting of a thing by a iiif- penfion of power, and the caufing of a thing by an exertion of power, — are as different matters as two and four ; and can never poflibly become the fame thing co'aleicing into the lame idea. § VI(. The reafon given for faying fo of the Fir/I Caufe only, that " againft his will nothing can pof- " fibly happen," is a reason of no confequence ; as the like will hoid in fome cafes, of other caufes alfo, where no fuch confequence will be pretended. For inftance, a (tone is lying at one's foot; and it cannot poflibly happen, in the prefent circumftances, that the flone mould be up from the ground, unlefs he take it up ; — nor can it poflibly happen, in the pre- fent circumftances, after the flone is up in his hand, that it (hall be on the ground again, unlefs he let it fall : But will, this fay, that his. taking it up and letting it fall is the fame thing ; that the exertion of his power in the one cafe, is the fame thing with his withdrawing of it in the other ? Again, while the fun is. mining freely in our iky, it cannot poflibly happen but that we mould have a day ; nor can it poflibly happen, while the fun is withdrawn from our fky, but that we mould have a night : Yet who would imagine, that permitting and caufing are the fame thing here ; that the fun is cffeclive in permit- ting the night-darknefs, as well as in producing the day-light. § VIII. There was a mod glorious efficiency of the Firft Caufe, in producing all this world out of no- thing. New, fuppofing that the world, or fome pari 364 A Discourse of part of it, fhould be annihilated, or mould return to its original nothing ; couid there be any efficien- cy of the Firft Cauie in permitting this? It is a thing which could not pofiibly happen againft his will; yet there could be no room here, for any influence or efficacy of his power. His power continually up- holds every creature in being, and it has no felf- being for him to deftroy; the deduction of its be- ing, or its dropping into nothing, could not there- fore be from an efficiency. — but only from a with- drawing of his power. It would be proper to fay that he permitted it; but it would have a blafphc- jhous found, to fay that he cavfed it ; As if the crea- ture had fohie other being than what depends on his upholding, which could not be abolifhed by a mere withdrawing of his power. There muft, then, be always a moil effential difference, betwixt God's per- mitting and cQufing. § IX. The object of God-s permiffion is not, pre^ ciiely, a Jinful aftion ; but the Jin, or finfulnefs of that action. The action, as the action of a reafonable creature, or as it bears the common nature of action, « — is the object of his efficiency, concurring with the efficiency of the creature; according to what has been already faid upon the general point, of man's dependence on God as a rational creature. Yet the fin, or finfulnefs of the action, is a quality of it which does not properly bear the nature of being, but of not-being : It is of the nature of want, defect, or privation; and this, in the moral cafe of a ration- al creature, which cannot pofiibly be indifferent as to good or evil, — neceffarily implies contrariety and oppofition to the matter of that want, defect, or pri- vation. New, fuch a thing is a proper object of peimiflion, but there is a grofs abfurdity in fuppof- ing that it could be an object of efficiency or pro- duction, Liberty and Necessity. 365 du&ion,-— that God's permitting it can be the fame thing with his caufing it. The fmfulnefs of a man, and of his adlicns, is a fort of annihilation, — a drop- ping fo far back into nothing with rcipcct to the moral condition which God placed him in at firft: And no fort of annihilation could be from any in- fluence or efficiency of the divine power, it could only proceed from a withdrawing of it. Accor- dingly, man's finful flate is properly called a jailcn Jiaie ; 2nd though there muft be an influence of power in raifing up and keeping up, there can be no influence of power in letting fall. There muft always, then, be a mod efTential dif- ference betwixt God's permitting lln and his caufing it. A caufing of it would neceffarily make him anfwerable for it as its author; and could not con- fift with his infinite holinefs, his abfolute detefta- tion and hatred of fin : But his permitting it can confift with all this ; when he makes the permiilion fubfervient to mod valuable, moft wife and holy ends. § X. Whatever God permits, infallibly takes place. — It is not as when man permits a thing to be; which, upon that permiinon, may or may not be *. Even all this world would infallibly drop back into nothing, were God to withdraw his upholding power * " The Almighty power, unfearchablc wtfclom, and ii ' " goodnefs of God, fo far manifelt thernfelves in his providence, " that it extendeth itfelf even to the firft fall, and all othi «' of angels and men ; and that not by a bare permiflion, but M fuch as hath joined with it a molt wife and powerful b " ing, ordering and governing of them, in a ir.?nifol< «' tion, to his own holy ends: Yet fo, as the fmfulnefs tl " proceedeth only from the crept-.. re, and not from ( " being moft holy and righteous neither is nor can be the au- '« thor or approver 01* fmS'<*r Wejimififn C ; Chrp* v. § 4- 366 A Discourse of power for a moment; and as infallible is the confe- quence of withdrawing or with -hoi ding his power from man; in what refpe&s his moral condition, — - while the creature can be or do nothing indepen- dently of him. Thusj it is not only true, that no- thing can poflibly happen againft his will; but it is as true, that nothing can poflibly happen without his will. He wills, that fin mould take place : But it is not properly man's finning that he wills; it is properly his own permiflion of it that he wills, with his molt holy and wife ordering of it to the ends of his own glory. And fo, upon the whole, a (late of abfolute and continual dependence on God runs through all things in the moral, as well as in the material world: All things are moil wifely ordered, by a continual dif- penfation of his power and permiflion, for the ac- complishment of his eternal and unalterable coim- fels; befide, beyond, or heiow which, nothing can take place. Art. IV. Of moral Necefiity. § T. It is eafy, from what has been faid, to un~ derftand what fort of necefftty belongs to the moral world; concerning the power and exercife of the human will. We have feen that there is no fort of neceiTity from any motives whatfoever, confidered as thiv lie without us: Yea, even after thefe motives come into us, into our mind, — the will is in no fub- je&ion to them, confidered as they are in them- fclves, but only as prefented by the mind, and ac- cording to the moral difpofition of the wil). § II. There is a fort of intrinfic or conftitutional necefiity, both from the reafonable and moral fiate of human nature.— Man is under a necefiity of act- ing Liberty and Necessity. «Qj y ing fome way as a reafonable creature, while h and fo far as he is fuch ; of acting as a creature en- dued with an underltanding and will. Again, lie is under a neceility of acting as a (infill creature ; while he is, and fo far as he is fuch. From his natural corruption, the darknefs and enmity which now be- long to his moral difpohtion, he is in a flate of fpi- rituai bondage; a flave to many foolifh and hurtful Jufts, and thus fubjecled to the power of Satan. — But all this is more properly a certainty than a neceffity : A certainty of man's being what he is, and as he is, while he is fo. § III. The only other fort of neceflity in the mo- ral world, as in the material world, — is the necefii- ty of being in a (late of abfolute dependence on God. And what is this but the neceility of being only a creature, under a fupreme and continued difpofai of his glorious Creator; who mod inconceivably exercifes' a fovereign and univerfal dominion over the human will, without any encroachment on its nature? Art. V. Of moral Liberty. § I. The human will, as we have feen, is in a flate of abfolute freedom with refpect to all motives; both as they are without us, and as they are in them- ftlves. The will has no concern with motives, but as the understanding flates them and makes them to be: And then the will proceeds upon them, not limply according to how they are fo dated and m; but mainly according to what prevails in its moral difpofition. § II. As to the necelTity of man's willing and . ting in conformity to his apprjlr'ii.'ijus and difpofi- tion: 363 A Discourse of tion; tftb, in a general view of it, is fully confident with ail the liberty which can belong to a rational nature. The infinite Being neceiTarily wills and acts according to the abfolute perfection of his na- ture, yet with the higheil liberty; angels necefTarily will and act according to the perfection of their na- tures, yet with full liberty: For this fort of neceffi- ty is fo far from interfering with liberty of will, that the perfeclion of the will's liberty lies in fuch a ne- cefhty. The very efience of its liberty lies in acting confcioully, chufmg or refuting, without any exter- nal compulsion or conflraint ; but according to in- ward principles, of rational apprehenfion and natu- ral difpofition : So that this neceiTity, as to t-he will, is jaffc the neceiTity of its freedom or liberty. § III. With refpect to man's will, in his fallen and corrupt eitate,—- all the liberty dill belongs to it, which poffibly can belong to a rational creature. For the higheft liberty imaginable of a creature's will, is the liberty of confcience acting according to his inward apprehenfions and difpofition; whatever thefe be : The higheft imaginable liberty of will in a rational agent, is the liberty of doing as be pleafes. As to the fpiritual bondage and ilavcry which be- longs to man's natural eftate; this doth not properly affect the liberty of his will, but the integrity and power of his foul. For all his natural propeniity to evil, takes effect in the way of inclination ; and all h:s natural inability for what is truly good, takes effect in the way of di [inclination : So that his will {till acts with all the liberty which can belong to a will; as it acts according to the apprehenfions and difpofition of his foul. And thus, when the grace of God reftores a foul, it no way alters this ertential manner of the will's ailing; ic makes no change or improvement as to that Liberty and Necessity. 369 that liberty which belong! to the nature of a will: But it renews the will in renewing the foul ; renew- ing the foul, as to that darknefe and enmity which belong to its moral difpofition. § IV. If we further enquire ^rto the liberty of man's will, as it Hands in relation to God, — we may itill find that it enjoys all the liberty which can poffibly belong to the will of a rational creature; all that liberty which we have been juft now defcribing. The manner of God's dominion over the human will (as to his influence, withholding, withdraw- ing ; and ordering of circumfhinc s). is what we ot pretend to explain : But this we nay be fure of concerning it; that it leaves man's Will as free in its manner of acting, as free from any contradic- tion to its nature, as if there were no will at all a- bove it. Man's will never acled, never could act more freely, than in his firft tranfgrcihon ; as the with- holding of divine influence, in that awful cafe, com- mitted no fort .bf. violence upon his will, — made no fort of encroachment on its natural liberty. GnJ did not then withdraw any thing that he had actual- ly beftowed on man; but left him with a fulnefs of that ability by which he might have flood: He only with-held, in awful foveieigntyj that Continued e- manation of divine influence, without uhich no ha- bitual powers eor.ld be fufficientfor bis actual (land- ing ; yet Hill m- king no iort of enciuachment on his liberty of will. And this may be i'luftrated by an ordinary ca r e i n iif e , — One makes a queition, whether he mould drefs and go out; or rather keep his room. I 1 the event, he keeps his room. From this it appears, that God {in whom we move) withheld the (ecret providential inlluence which would have determin- Yy ed $jo A Discourse of ed him on the other fide. Yet all the time he is flaying in, he is fully confcious of his having the fame ability for going out as if he had been actually doing fo ; and that God's myfterious difpofal of his inclination, as to the event, leaves him all the li- berty of will that he couid imagine, — for doing as he plea/is. And as it was in the cafe of man's firft tranfgrefli- on, fo it is ftilj; that God's with-holding and with- drawing, and all the exercife of his dominion over the human will, doth no way change its nature or impair its liberty, — more than if there were no fuch thing at ail on God's part. § V. A man can therefore have no excufe for his fin, from God's permimon; or from any exercife of God's dominion over his will. His (in, notwith- ftanding of this, mud be of a criminal and punifha- ble nature. He neglects a duty, he commits a fin, — with all the voluntary freedom which a creature is capable of. The corrupt difpofition to which he is a Have, is all his own, what God never made; and he loves to have it fo. What he wills, in finning, is what God wills not,— -cannot will: And he fins in con- tradiction to God's preceptive will, made known to him in the dictates of confcience; but more ful- ly in the holy Scriptures. He fins, not from any refpecl to the divine permimon, or to God's fove- reign dominion over him; but from a refpecl only to the dictates of his own corrupt difpofition : So that he fins as if there were no Lord over him; ha- ving this for the material language of his ungodly difpofition *. All therefore that can poflibly belong to the na- ture of criininalnefs, of accountablenefs, of punifh- abienefs, * Pfal, xii. 4. ; xiv. 1. Liberty and Necessity. 371 ablenefs, belongs to man's fin. And there could be nothing more unreasonable than to allege the contrary: Unlefs one could maintain an utter im- pofiibility of there being iuch a thing as a reafonable creature, an object of God's moral dominion; an utter impossibility of the plaineil fadt! Or unlefs one could maintain, — that blamablenels and puniihable- nefs in any actions of reafonable creatures, is utter- ly inconfiftent with God's Sovereignty over them and their actions; that is, utterly inconfiftent with the being of a God ! CONCLUSION. § I. The EJfayer teaches, That univerfal necejfity is the true fyjhm of nature, the real plan of the uni- *verfe *: And this he teaches, concerning a necelTity which he fuppofes to lie in the nature and constitu- tion of things. But, after what has been faid, we may juftly affirm the very reverfe : That, according to the nature and conflitution of things; abftracting from the continual prefidence and interpofition of the divine will and power, — univerfal liberty and con- tingency is the true fyftem of nature, the real plan of the univerfe. § II. As the Efjayer tells us, — that " whoever " hath juft ideas, and a true tafte of philofophy will " fee" his fcheme of neceflity " to be the real trn- " ory of the univerfe:" So he affirms " that, upon " any other theory, there can be no general order, " no whole, no plan, no means nor end in its ad- " miniftration f." But another theory, extremely different, has been now propofed: And whatever a- ny think of the Author's ideas or tafte of philoSophy, he may affirm without any fcruple,— -that this uni- verfe * P. 140, 159- t p - r 54- 372 A Discourse of verfe can have no general order, no whole, no plan, iio means nor end of us adminiil ration, — except u- pcn the theory which he has propofed ; the theory o; rue lubje&ion oi all things to the continual inter- pofition o. the will and power of the infinite One, conne&ing and managing ^11 things according to his one mind in his everl ailing couniels. § III. The E/fitver- informs us, concerning his fcheme of ncceflity ef^ecially as it refpecls the mo- ra 1 world, — that " it is not otherwife difcovera- 54 ble but bv deep thinking, and by a long chain " of abfhact reasoning;" and c would to us be a Ki dead fecret, v. ere it not brought to light by a ft long ana painiul reasoning: And hence the ig- cc norance, almoft univerfal, of our being ncceffary « agents V bat the cafe is quite otherwife, as to that necefrity which really takes place in both the material ;nd moral wo; Id. It is no other, than the necellny of all things being whn they aie and as they are while they are fo: And the neceflity of man's being a rati- onal creature, willing and acting according to his apprehenHons and difpofition; with the neceffity of the abfolute and continued dependence of all things en God, as ordering all things according to his own pleafure. N- w there is nothing here (in the matter of htVj to lie a dead fecret, till h be brought to light by the painful labours of an acute and pene- trating pbjloiopher: Nothing that any fober Chrif- ti n can he ignorant of; nothing but what is moft obvious to every ploughman, who has the fear of God in his htart. § IV. A\] the natural and common fenfe that men , oi contii gency in events and liberty in ac- tions, * P. 134. Liberty and Necessity, tw* lions, is leprefented by the EJfayer as a ditufive fenfe, not agreeing io the truth of things,— yet an criminal law in our nature *. But it may plainly ap- pear from what has been ia r d, that fudi a repr< tation is ab olutely groundlefs: As all the fenfi contingency and liberty which any man has or can have, confidently with his living in the ftar of God, is fully agreeable to wl at we have mown i* the and mod intimate truth of things; having nothing in it of deluficn or deceit, impofed by God on hu- man nature. § V. The d< ctrine of necfflity in the F,Tr\ is pretended to be of great merit; as making a full end of the Arminian do&riue about free will. And it really does fo. But alas! at a vail: expence: At no lower expence, in its native tendency, — than that of burying Armhiiamfm, with ah the valuable things of Chtijlidniiy which have been mentioned, in one common grave; Arminian liberty, and Calvinijl li- berty going to the pot together. Calvinilts have taken a way of contending againft the Arminian fcheme of free will, which is quite fufficient; and, at the lame time, quite agreeable to Chrifiianity. Their way of it lies generally in thefe three things: In alTerting the will to be a power of the rational foul, which cannot poiTibly be t died but as fuch; in alTerting the corruption oi' hu- man nature; and in alTerting the abfclute fubje&ion of every man's will, to the fovereign will ot God. But the fatal way taken in the Eflay, for over- throwing Arminian liberty, lies in fubje&ing both the will of God and the will of man to the will of an univerfal neceffity in the laws of nature,— God is faid to have efiablifhed, without retainii ny control over them; a nec< w ith * P. iSU l 5*- *59' 374 . Hurh BairJ, d •• John liairJj do. Rev. Mr. John Campbell, A.M. rector of Yofk and Huntingdon. Rev. Mr. James Clarkfon, minifier of the goipel, at MjJdy Creek, York county. Majqr James Chryrtie, New-York. John Crcigh, Efq. Carlifle. Mr. James Conchy, tracer, Phil ad. David Clark, coach-maker, Phil. Jofeph Chambeilain, York county Samuel Cobean, Jo. Peter Canine, do. Archibald Coulter, do. John Carfon, Big Spring. George Clarke, Green Caftfei Robert Correy. George Crawford, Franklin coun- Robert Cunningham, ftjdcnt. John Carfon. Patrick Campbell. Samuel Culoertfon, Letrcrkcn- ny, F. C. James Culbertfon, do. James Cunningham. John Campbell. Alexander Cameron. John Charbcr, New-York. John Charber, do. D Rev. Dr. George DufiiclJ, partor of the third Prelbyterian Chuich, Phil. Rev. Dr. Robert' Davidibn, proktfu in Dickinfon College, and minifter of the goipel in Carlifle. Cul. James Dickfon, York county, 12 copies, Mr. James Duncan, do. George Douglas, do- James Dunlop. Alexander Downing. Thomas Dickfon. Stephen Duncan. A a a. ' Mr. 3*6 SUBSCRIBERS NAMES. Mr. Samuel Dickey, Thomas Dick. James Duncan. Rev. Dr. John Ewing, provofr of the Univerfity of Pennfylvania, and minifter of the firft Prefbyterian Church, Philadelphia. Samuel Edie, Efq. Mr. John Efpy. John Ewman, Philadelphia F John Fulton, fen. Efq. Mr. William Fullerton, Pequea. J>ho Fimeton, carpenter, PhiL John Fleming, York county. Archibald Finiey, do. Roberr. Fullerton* 'Thomas Foiter. James Fulton. John Forfych. William Fleming* Duncan Forbes. Rev. A&cald Green, M. A. junior pallor of the fecond Prefbyterian Church in Philadelphia. Dr. Lt-mue! Gui'tine, Carlifle. Mr. Jota Getty, Yoik county. T'». rr»js Gour.'y, do. Jam?s Galloway, do. Alexander Glendenning. Robert Gordon. Iliac Grear, ftudent. Jarnfs Gibfon. John Gray. Robert Gardner. H Rpv. Matthew Henderfon, jun. Weft- moreland county. Col. Thomas Hartley. Br. John Hall, Yjrk-Town. Mr. Ca.iiei Huft.n, Pequea. William Huflon, do. J »- fjfenderfon, Cumberland county. Robert Hunter, vendue matter, New- York. Own Hamilton, fen. Philad. Samuel Harvey, taylor, Philad. James Hogan, Philadelphia. tthew Horner, York couotv. • ; - Hutchlnfon. james Holack. Mr. James Henderfon. James Harper. William Henderfon. Hugh Henderfon. John Hughes. John Heap. David Hoge, ftudent. John Heap, Shippenfburgk,, James Hutchifon. Samuel Harper. James Huflon. Mr. Thomas Johnfton, Pequea John Irwin, York coanty. David Junkens. John Jones. Aaron James. Jofeph Junkin. K Dr. Samuel Knox, York county. Mr. Michael Ker, carpenter, New- York, 12 copies. William Kerr, York county* John Ker. Jofeph Kerr. William Kerr, James Kerr. Robert Kerr. John Ketly. George Kline, printer, Carlifle. Alexander M. Kettricks. Robert Kennedy. Andrew Ker, New- York. Rev. William Logan, minifter of the gofpel, Cumberland county. Charles Leeper, Efq. Mi. James Laxton. Robert Lefarty. Ja mes Long. William Lyon. Samuel Laird. George Logue. • James Lamberton, jun. William Levis, Carlifle. M Rev. Dc. Samuel Magaw, reclor of Sr. Paul's Church, and vice provoft of the Univerfity of Pennfylvania. Rev. William Marfhall, A. M. mini- fter of the Scons Prefbyterian Church, Philadelphia. Mr: SUBSCRIBERS NAMES. 3*1 }oi'q;h Miller, Efq. Lancailcr county, I?, copies. Mr. James M'Cormick, teacher of mathematics, Dickinfon college Capt. Jofeph Morrifon, 2 copies. - Wiliam M'Clelland, Y. C. Mr. James M'Lain, jun. ltudent. John M'AHHtsr, whip and cane maker, Philadelphia. John M'Cormick, York county. David Moore, do. John Monteith, jun. do. Walter Maxwell, Franklin count. Thomas M'Clelland, York co. Francis Meredith, do. William M'Creary, do. John M'Dowell. James M'Farlane James M'Clenachan, Green caflle William M'Cieary. John Moore. Nathaniel Mitchel. Thomas Matthews. • William Murray. Samuel Miller. Alexander Moor. Samuel M'CuIlociw Ifaac M'Ifaack. Andrew Martin. Robert Miller. John Montgomery. Henry M'Ewen. James M'Connel, Letterkenny, Franklin county. Robert M'Carney, Green townmip Robert M'Call, Shippenfburgh. Thomas M'Nary. Hugh M-Elroy, Cumberland co. Charles Mitchell, New-York. William Moore, Chefter county. N Rev. Dr. Charles Nefbit, principal of Dickinfon college, Carliile. Mr. Adam Neil. Rev. Jofeph Pilmore, rector of Tri- nity Church, Oxford, Phil. Co. Rev. James Proudfif, New Perth. Col. Samuel Poftlethwait. Mrs. Margaret Poe, widow, York co. irruel Purviance. Archibald Purdy. James Porter. James l J edan. Andrew Paxton. Mr. Charles W. Porter. Robert Proud! James Paterfon, Rapho to^. r. - illip, I.. C. 2 C R Mr. James Rofs, profeflTor of language es, Dickinf n Collrge. Hugh RnL, fmitb, Philadelphia. Robert Rcj, York county. William RufTcll, do. Henry Rouen, i U Samuel Read, Samuel Rolburgh. Adam Read. John Ruffell. William Roucrtfon, New-York. Rev. Dr. James Sprout, fejiioi of the lecond Preibyterian C in Philadelphia. Rev. John Smith, minilter of; pel at OcVarara. Philip Scot, r.1'4. Dr. David Seth, New-York. Dr. Andrew Spence, dentilt, PI Mr. William Shokely, York < z copies. John Smith, Carlifle. Thomas Stockton, Letterkenny, F. C. Peter Stewart, printer, Philad. James Scott, robacconiit, JamesStuart, bifcuit-ba!: |ames Sclater, Pbiladel] James Stevenfon, Yoik l John Shokely, do. David Scott, do. Robert Scott, do. James Scrotigs, Big Sprinr. Robert Stewart. James Stewart, fen. William Speen, ltuJent. Jacob Si;i. Robert Semple. Alexander Sharp, Eig S Alexander Scro<:gs. Jumes Short, merchant. Town. William Scott. David Sampfon, William Spccd>, Cumber! Samuel Sharon, do. Samuel Shaw, ••- ,SS SUBSCRIBERS NAMES. do. do. do. Mr. Archibald Tait, York-county, 12 copies. Samuel Tate, teacher, Carlifle, 12 copies. William Thorofon, James Thompfon, John Thompfon, James Thomfon. Thomas Thornbery. Archibald Tate, teacher of ma- thematics, Rock-creek, York county. Alexander Turner. Jofeph Turner, Philadelphia. James Thomfon, Brandywine. W Rev. Dr. John Witberfpoon,, prefident of New-Jerfey College. Mr. Andrew Wright, joiner, New. .York, 12 copies. Nathaniel Weakly, 12 copies. Mifs jean Wear, New- York. Mr. John Watfon. Thomas White, moemaker, Phil. John. Wiil'on, York-county. John Wodrow, Maryland. Alexander Wodrow, do. Patrick Wallace. Andrew Whitar. David Watt. Matthew Wilfon. Samuel Wodrow, Brandywinf. Mr. Thomas Vowell, meichar.t, Phil. Mr. John Young, frudent. CC/" As it is evident, that many fubferibers names have not yet been forwarded to the publishers,— it is therefore propofed, that all who come forward before the ill of January 1789, will be ferv- ed as thofe above-mentioned ; after that the book will be retailed at 8/. ^d. in boards, and iar. bound. #r